Luxury and the media are stronger than the uncertainties about the US budget. At least in Piazza Affari supported by the takeover bid on Yoox by Richemont and by the judgments of analysts on Mediaset. The Ftse Mib index +0,10% at 23 points is the strongest in the Old Continent. Slightly down Paris -772%, positive Frankfurt +0,01 and London +0,04%.
At noon, US time (shortly after the closure of the European lists) the US Senate will vote on a new bill capable of authorizing the restart of public spending, blocked from Friday evening at midnight, due to the lack of agreement in Congress. The new bill incorporates some demands from Democrats.
At the beginning of the week, the yield premium of the BTP with respect to its Bund counterpart narrows, in a climate generally inclined to reward the peripherals after the promotion of the Spanish and Greek sovereign ratings. Madrid's rating was raised to A- from BBB+ by Fitch, Athens' recommendation from B- to B by Standard & Poor's. The Btp/Bund spread contracted slightly to 137 basis points compared to 139 at Friday's close. Three days after the ECB meeting, the go-ahead from the SPD for the formation of the government with Angela Merkel contributes to favoring the climate.
The euro strengthened against the dollar to 1,226 from 1,222 in Friday's session.
Day of glory for the Berlusconi group. Fly Mediaset +3,9% in the wake of an enthusiastic report by Goldman Sachs which suggests a target of 4,50 euros with an upside potential of 40% The broker expects a strong recovery in profitability while political risks and disputes with Vivendi are now widely priced.
Growing strongly too Mondadori +3,12%: last Saturday the newspaper Les Echos revealed the existence of an offer by Reworld Media, a French digital publisher, for Mondadori France. Retelit + 3%
Another driver of the increase is luxury, enhanced by theTakeover bid of the giant Richemont (Cartier and Montblanc) for Ynap +24,12% of which it already controls 75,03%. The price offered, 38 euros per share entirely in cash, will involve an outlay of 2,69 billion euros +27% the premium on the average quotations for the quarter). The delisting is foreseen but the founder Federico Marchetti will remain as operational guide who today recalls: "As an entrepreneur, I remember the hard work and the emotion for the listing of Yoox in 2009, when we debuted on the Stock Exchange at just over €4 per share and our revenues were around €150 million”.
The news affects eCommerce companies, such as ePrice + 4%.
For the same reason, some Luxury companies are lively. Ferragamo + 4%. Moncler +1%. JP Morgan raises the target price to 27,5 euros.
In the other European price lists, the drop in Sanofi -3,5% after the French pharma group announced the purchase of Bioverativ, a specialist in haemophilia treatments, for 11,6 billion dollars (too much for analysts).
Shares in Zurich are down ubs -2,5% after the quarter's losses. The Swiss stock market falls by 0,10%.
The price of oil moved little: Brent at 68,57 dollars, Wti at 63,35. The market is supported by comments from Saudi Arabia on the continuation of production cuts beyond 2018. The energy sector is positive: Eni + 0,20% Total e Royal Dutch Shell they rose by 1% and 0,8% respectively.
Bank stocks are also waking up thanks to a report on the sector by Mediobanca Securities:
- Banco bpm +1,8%. This morning Mediobanca raised its target price to 5,0 euros from 4,80 euros, reinforcing the Outperform rating.
- Bper Banking +1,2%. The stock has reversed its initial weak trend and is now up 1,9% to 4,54 euros. Piazzetta Cuccia has promoted the target to 6,0 euros from 5,60 euros. The potential upside compared to the listing is around +30%. Salt too Ubi Banking + 1%.
- Mediobanca also gave a boost to Unicredit +1,3% which reversed the negative trend of the beginning. The broker adjusted the target price to 23 euros from 21 euros, Outperform recommendation confirmed.
- Still declining Creval -4%.
Atlantia -0,3%, revised some elements of its offer for Abertis, other improvements could soon be announced. The holding anticipated this intention in a note released on Friday evening: a meeting has been called for February 21st.
