A week of passion for the Italian Stock Exchange is coming to an end, conditioned today, in terms of volumes, by the pre-holiday climate; in fact, tomorrow and Monday the markets stop for the Easter holidays.
The Ftse Mib loses 1,16% and falls below the psychological threshold of 20.000 points to 19.773 basis points. The banks suffer the most, with a decline at European level. FCA is also down on the Milanese price list, -3,73%, penalized by a report by Exane Bnp Paribas, which cuts the target price from 7,3 to 6,9 euros and confirms the underperform opinion. Spread further up to 210.30 points, again at its three-year high.
The other continental markets are also in red, while the first round of the French elections approaches, scheduled for April 23 and fears remain for the fate of the euro, with the candidate Marine Le Pen.
Paris loses 0,59%; Madrid 0,33%; Frankfurt 0,38%; London 0,29%. Wall Street opens weakly, but then regains share with the Dow at parity and the other stocks rising. The US macroeconomic data is in chiaroscuro: producer prices worse than expected; unemployment benefits, better than expected. Consumer confidence is doing well, strengthening more than expected in April. The first quarterly results were especially positive Jp Morgan and Citigroup, while Wells Fargo still suffers from the ghost accounts scandal. On the other hand, understanding the presidency Donald Trump, who, when he acts and speaks, is not a statesman who goes so subtle. The dollar is recovering after the plunge in the morning following an interview with the American president in the Wall Street Journal, according to which a too strong greenback would damage the economy, therefore rates should remain low.
The euro is at 1,063 against the dollar (-0,33%). Brent down: 55,73 dollars a barrel (-0,23%), Gold loses a few decimals from the gains made: -0,18%, 1284,25 dollars an ounce.
In bonds, the climate of uncertainty favors safe securities such as Bunds. The spread between Italian and German paper widens and on the 210.30-year bond it reaches 0,96 (+2,3%), with a yield of 0,2%. In its Bulletin, Bankitalia observes that in the first three months of the year the Italian economy continued to expand by an estimated rate of around XNUMX% and growth should continue, but "the recovery of the global economy remains subject to various elements of uncertainty".
In this context, "foreign investors reduced their holdings of Italian portfolio securities by 75,2 billion in 2016 as a whole", mainly exiting bank bonds (28,7 billion) and government bonds (24,6 billion) .
Furthermore, last year the Roe of the most important Italian banking groups collapsed by almost 10%, partly due to the extraordinary adjustments of Unicredit. "In 2016 - he writes - the action of the banks, aimed at increasing the coverage rates of non-performing loans, affected profitability". In addition, the update of the Basel rules on European banks, the so-called Basel IV, risks creating a need for additional capital of 120 billion euro for institutions, reducing profitability (-0,6 percentage points on the return on equity) and affecting capital indices. This is what the consulting firm McKinsey writes in a report.
E it is the banks that pay the highest price on the stock market these days. On the Ftse Mib Banco Bpm leaves 2,83%; Understanding -1,61%; Unicredit -2,42%. In contrast Ubi, +0,47%.
Today asset management is also losing ground with Azimut -1,79%, while Paola Mungo leaves the position of Co Chief Executive Officer, at the end of a 16-year cycle within the Group. Her resignation will take effect from 27 April, the day of the shareholders' meeting to approve the 2016 financial statements.
Black shirt is Fca, after the analysis of the French broker according to which "the worsening of credit conditions for cars in the US will soon force us to re-evaluate the bull case on FCA".
The sales hit oil companies, starting from Eni, -1,64%, despite the fact that the CEO Claudio Descalzi, on the occasion of the meeting, guaranteed the shareholders a dividend even with very low oil prices. Down Tenaris, -1,27%.
Profit-taking on utilities, Enel drops -1,14%. Buzzi still down, -1,47%. Almost one point less for Banca Mediolanum (-0,95%) and Mediaset (0,93%) despite the fact that a nice nest egg enters the coffers of the shareholder Fininvest, from the Chinese buyers of AC Milan. The amount of the operation is 740 million, including debts of 220 million. Thus concludes the passing of the baton from Silvio Berlusconi, patron of the Rossoneri company for 31 years, to the Rossoneri Sports Investment Lux consortium led by Li Yonghong.
Best stock of the day is Yoox +0,97%. Good Moncler +0,52%. Leonardo limits gains in the final, +0,69%. The performance is partly due to the recommendation of Oddo Securities, which raised its valuation to buy, as it estimates that the sector will grow with increases in defense spending. Positive Cnh +0,64%.
