Piazza Affari closes up 1,06%, the best index among the main European markets driven by the good day above all by Saipem, Enel and Pirelli. Paris rises slightly above parity +0,07%, London +0,25%, Madrid +0,37% while Frankfurt drops 0,2%.
The Stock Exchanges welcomed yesterday's announcement by the Fed that it is no longer "patient" on rates but still deemed a hike in April unlikely and that it wanted to proceed with a gradual increase in rates only in the presence of improvements in the economy. However, the situation is still tense on the Greek front. And at the EU summit the protagonist is still the clash between the German minister Schaeuble and the Greek minister Varoufakis. The Btp-bund spread closed down at 105 basis points.
The euro-dollar exchange rate reacted strongly to the Fed's announcement, dropping 2,11% to 1,0635 in just one day. After three days of strengthening of the euro, the greenback is gaining ground again. At the same time, WTI oil dropped 3,07% to 43,29 dollars a barrel.
After the post-Fed jump, Wall Street opened lower today. The Dow Jones was down $0,7% and the S&P500 was down 0,56%. On the macroeconomic front, the Philadelphia area manufacturing activity index unexpectedly dropped to 5 points in March from 5,2 points in February. The data is worse than the expectations of analysts, who expected an improvement to 7 points. The US economy recorded a modest increase in applications for unemployment benefits in the week of March 14: initial applications increased by a thousand units to 291 thousand compared with expectations for 292 thousand. Finally, the US current account deficit rose 14,8% to $113,45 billion in the fourth quarter compared to the previous three months, well above analysts' expectations.
In Piazza Affari, Saipem stands out +3,9%, which benefits from the signing of a joint venture in China with PetroChina and from the hypotheses of a return of interest from Rosneft.
Enel gains 3,34% after the accounts that saw an increase in the coupon, Pirelli rises by 3,26% after the hypotheses of a takeover bid in preparation for Pirelli by the current shareholders of Camfin and an investor Asian. "No comment" is the response from the shareholders of Camfin (Nuove Partecipazioni, Unicredit, Intesa Sanpaolo, Rosneft) which holds about 26% of the tire group.
Ubi Banca also performed well +2,69%, with the banking sector in general standing out. Unicredit rises by 2,06%, Intesa +0,33%, Bpm +1,73%, Mps +1,92%, Banco Popolare +1,74%. The sub-fund also benefits from the publication of the outcome of the ECB's third long-term Tltro auction. Overall, 143 European banks requested and obtained liquidity for 97,8 billion, a figure higher than the expectations of analysts, who predicted a figure between 40 and 60 billion.
Telecom slipped by 0,18% after the group released the 2014 accounts which marked the telephone company's return to profit after three years of losses. The coupon will be distributed only to savings shares for 2,75 euro cents. At the bottom of the Ftse Mib are Enel Green power -2,13%, Ferragamo -1,58%, Stm -1,10%, Snam -0,67%.
