ENI EFFECT ON MILAN. TELECOM, NEW POSTPONEMENT FOR 7. DRAGHI STOPS THE EURO AND THE MARCH OF TOKYO, CHINA STARTS AGAIN
The growth ofeuro could jeopardize the recovery of the eurozone. This comment by Mario Draghi, at the end of the ECB directorate, was enough to trigger the descent of the single currency on the markets: 1,340 against the dollar (from 1,352).
TOKYO BRAKES, CHINA SPEEDS UP
The reaction of the Nikkei was immediate. Tokyo index loses 1,3% this morning approximately, even for the thud of Sony -6,2%. In Hong Kong, on the other hand, the stock market rose +0,22%, in a semi-holiday session. In fact, the Chinese New Year holidays are about to begin: the Hong Kong price list will remain closed until next Thursday. Shanghai +0,3% will close its doors for the whole week. Meanwhile, the Dragon is growing again. In January, Chinese exports rose by 25,5%.% but imports also restarted +28,8%, starting with raw materials. The final balance is active for 29 billion dollars against 31,5 in December.
APPLE, BATTLE IN ASSEMBLY ON THE COUPON
The Wall Street indexes are unstable: Dow Jones -0,30%, S&P -0,18% and Nasdaq -0,11%. The spotlights are focused on a "historic" day for US governance The awaited Apple meeting will be held in which the criteria for appointing directors should be reviewed in a democratic sense. The Calpers fund will support the motion of Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, which will prohibit in the future the mission of shares without voting rights unless explicitly voted by a majority of the assembly. The board, then, must be the expression of the majority of consensus and not co-opted by the CEO, as in the times of Steve Jobs. Against the hedge fund Greenlight Capital which will propose a motion to give the corporation the power to issue shares with a high share but without the right to vote.
Weak European Stock Exchanges: London -1%, Paris -1,1%. Frankfurt only +0,1% into positive ground on December's favorable industrial production data. While awaiting the decisions of the Brussels summit, the declarations of Mario Draghi weigh heavily, saying that he does not foresee a recovery of the euro area economy before the last few months of 2013. For this reason, the European Central Bank will keep interest rates unchanged at the current historic low by 0,75% and will remain ready for new stimulus measures.
THE NOTICE TO SCARONI SENDS MILAN IN RED
Piazza Affari has made history in itself. The Ftse Mib index closed down by 1,2%, dragged by the fall of Eni –4,62% after the news that the managing director Paolo Scaroni is being investigated for corruption in Algeria which has already led to the beheading of the top management of the subsidiary Saipem. In the wake of the news, the government bond market also faltered: lor spread, for a few minutes it rose to over 300 points before decreasing to 297 bps.
By chance, Eni's fall took place on the day of the semi-resurrection di Saipem +5,2%. After losing 29% in a single session on January 35 due to a shocking profit warning, the company surprisingly announced the collection of new orders for 3,2 billion euros in the last two months (December 2012 and January 2013 ). A series of behaviors that has aroused a sort of revolt among many shareholders who have requested and obtained, with the support of Consob, a conference already in the evening.
In about two hours of conference call with analysts – which ended around 20 pm – the CEO of Eni's engineering and construction company, Umberto Vergine, tried to convince the financial community, especially foreign ones, about the company's prospects. Compared to the contracts announced yesterday, when asked why the top management did not announce them last Tuesday on the occasion of the profit warning, Vergine's response was as follows: "One of these contracts was officially signed two days ago and on the others we had no still the ok of the counterparts. That said, even if we had announced them last week, our estimates for 2013 would have remained the same."
If we exclude the final fall of Eni, the day was characterized by the recovery of MontePaschi, up 4% after the announcement by the management that the cleanup of the financial statements ended with a loss on derivatives of 730 million euros and there are no other "skeletons in the closets".
Electric climate around Impregile it, which gained 4,4% to 4,022 euros, i.e. above the price of the 4 euros at which Salini's takeover bid will be launched. The market is betting on a more generous offer. In the meantime, it has been specified that the shareholders will be able to choose whether to adhere to the takeover bid or to collect the maxi-dividend which will be decided by the board on 25 March.
Yet another black smoke for the sale of Telecom Italia Media. Telecom Italia's board of directors has shelved the question also due to the arrival of a new offer from Europa 7 which, however, does not seem destined to make headway. The board focused on the preliminary balance sheet and on the update of the business plan which will be presented to the analysts today.
The locations on La / remain distant. Telco shareholders are pressing for the immediate sale, given the accounts: turnover -6,7%, negative operating margin of 44 million, debt doubled to 260 million. Franco Bernabé does not want to give in to the offers from Cairo and Clessidra which he considers completely unsatisfactory and which, moreover, would not free Telecom from TiMedia's problems.
To go back to yesterday's session, utilities are among the worst blue chips in Piazza Affari: It is in the -1,6%, Enel Green Power -1,7% Snam -2,1% A2A -1,9%. The industrial sector is on the rise: Fiat is up 2,7% thanks to the promotion by Goldman Sachs which raised the target price to 5,2 euros. Fiat Industrial + 0,1%. Pirelli gained 1,4%, Prysmian +0,6%. Among the banks Unicredit lost 1%, Intes –1,3%, Banco Popular -2,1%. Insurance is also weak, with Generali down 1,3%, Unipol -2%. Among the mid caps, I leap by Rcs + 21% Asthma, the holding company of the Gavio family which owns 29% of Impregilo.
La new French Edison returns to profit after two years (2010 and 2011) closed in the red and is preparing to detach a maxi dividend for savings shares, the only ones left listed. The latter, around 110 million shares (of which two-thirds belong to UBS), will pay off a triple coupon and a total of 15 cents. This is because the statute imposes a minimum annual coupon of 5 cents and the recovery of dividends not collected in 2010 and 2011. Foro Buonaparte's 2012 accounts will be examined and approved by the board of directors on the calendar this morning.
