The price lists snub the news of the disappearance of the Libyan Rais Muammar Gaddafi and sink in anticipation of the European summit on Sunday. Fears over the fate of the EFSF fund weigh heavily, the Troika's alarm over the situation in Athens and the rumors, later denied, of the postponement of Sunday's summit: the Ftse Mib plunges by 3,78%, the Dax by 2,49%, the Cac of 2,32%, the Ftse 100 of 1,21%. Wall Street opens slightly lower and now the Dow Jones loses 0,45% and the Nasdaq 1,13%.
In the morning, the lists reacted negatively to the rumors about the failed agreement on the Save States fund at yesterday evening's summit between Sarkozy and Merkel. However, German Finance Minister Wolfang Shauble intervened during the day, denying the rumors about the lack of agreement between France and Germany. The two countries, he explained, have the same ideas on the measures to be taken to resolve the crisis but specify that the agreement does not replace negotiations with the 17 countries of the Eurozone. And in fact there are already those who turn up their noses. Like Estonia, whose prime minister said today: "Our position is clear. We don't want the Fund's endowment to be increased". And the fact is that at the moment there is still no agreement at European level on how to concretely proceed, despite the ultimatum launched by the G20 last weekend.
But we are now well beyond recovery times: the Troika is sounding the alarm, the situation in Greece is increasingly worrying and the last tranche of 8 billion aid must be given as soon as possible. Not only. The Financial Times reveals that for the Troika the second aid plan for Greece would not be enough to keep it afloat because the situation is deteriorating very rapidly.
The banks are going down. Unicredit collapsed in Piazza Affari, losing 12,01%, Intesa 9,81%, MPS 11,23% and Banco Popolare 6,92%. Bpm can't make it either, in the spotlight these days in view of Saturday's shareholders' meeting (-3,61%). In fact, the spread between the BTPs and the Bunds has widened again close to 400 basis points with the yield on Italian securities soaring to 6% at the level prior to the ECB's purchases.
On the German side, a leverage mechanism for the EFSF that passes through the European Central Bank is also excluded. A mechanism that of leverage which in any case will not be discussed at the summit on Sunday. The draft on the functioning prepared for the European summit envisages "preventive loans" of between 2 and 10% of GDP to the countries of the euro area "before they find it difficult to finance themselves" on the debt markets. The draft, however, would contemplate the possibility of intervening in the secondary debt markets on input from the ECB if the latter sees stability risks. As regards the recapitalization of banks, the EFSF fund can only be used after the intervention of shareholders, private investors and governments has failed. Meanwhile, according to the rumors relaunched by the Financial Times, the mechanism being studied by the EBA to determine the capital needs of European banks could lead to the need for total capital strengthening at system level included in the range of 70/90 billion ( to be filled in 6/9 months), a figure well below the 200 billion previously indicated by the International Monetary Fund.
At the end of the European markets, the euro is in the 1,368 area against the dollar while WTI oil is trading down in the area of 85 dollars a barrel.
Only Ansaldo Sts (+0.69%), Saipem (+0,66%) and Eni (+0,64%) shine in Piazza Affari, all companies that have interests in Libya and benefit from expectations of a return to normality in the country after the killing of the rais. There are also specific reasons: for Eni the discovery of a gas field in Mozambique and for Ansaldo the speculative expectations on the reorganization of the parent company Finmeccanica. However, the other Ftse Mib stocks all close in the red. Prysmian (-7,63%) was also among the worst performers after the Goldman Sachs buyout cut to neutral.
