Rain of sales on the lists, the spread rises to 340 points (while the Spanish one flies to 365) and the banks collapse which, under a flurry of suspensions, drag Milan to -3,30%, worst in Europe. The worst drop on the Ftse Mib is Mps -10,97% which discounts, in addition to the storm in the sector, even worse accounts than analysts' expectations and little visibility on the future. The review of the new business plan is expected at the end of May. But it is also a debacle for Bpm -10,44%, Banco Popolare -7,41%, Ubi -6,55%, Bper -6,34%. Followed by Unicreit -5,81% and Intesa -5,33%. Worse than the banks is the Ligresti galaxy, outside the Ftse Mib, with Premafin collapsing by 13,77% and Fondiaria Sai by 14,03% under the blows of the judicial storm. On the Ftse Mib only Finmeccanica resists +2,92%. For Telecom Italia (-2,65%) which today presented the incoming accounts with a dividend of 4,3 cents for ordinary shares and 5,4 cents for savings.
The strong red also the European markets: Frankfurt -1,77%, Paris -1,43%, London -1,15%. Wall Street is also conditioned by fears for the Eurozone after bringing home macroeconomic data overall in line with expectations: the Dow Jones drops 0,64% and the Nasdaq 0,90% while Facebook prepares to land in Stock exchange in May. The euro is at 1,3270.
Greece is once again worrying, for which a new restructuring plan according to S&P is not excluded but Spain is especially frightening, where the new Rajoy government is engaged in a series of measures to combat the deficit but which, according to denied rumors, could ask help Brussels. All aggravated by the climate of uncertainty that revolves around the famous firewall, the firepower set up to avert the risk of contagion from the Eurozone debt crisis which will be on the table at tomorrow's Ecofin.
The tug of war sees Germany at the table as usual, which is willing to increase the resources of the ESM bailout fund to 750 with the remaining 250 billion of the EFS fund but only "in exceptional circumstances". However, many EU countries would like a greater effort and the OECD is asking for the fund to be raised to one trillion. A clear European commitment on this front is essential for the G20 to increase funding for the Eurozone as well.
Despite the renewed tensions on the debt of peripheral countries, the Treasury archived a good result in the BTP auction scheduled for today: it placed 2,5 billion of the five-year BTP in May 2017, with the rate decreasing to 4,18% from 4,19 % of the auction from one month ago.
