A day to forget in Piazza Affari for Eni's stock, which in mid-morning lost two and a half percentage points, to 14,57 euros. This is one of the worst declines of the Ftse Mib, which in the same minutes travels in the red by 1,64%, also weighed down by bank stocks, targeted by sales for fears about Greece.
Eni therefore does not take advantage of the slight recovery in oil and suffers a setback after the rebound which in the last few sessions had brought the stock back from the minimum of 14 euros to the threshold of 15.
According to operators, there are two factors that make Eni go against the trend of the sector: first, the new clashes in Libya which have clearly penalized production in the North African country (which went from around 800 barrels per day to less than 300) where the group Italian is heavily engaged; secondly, the announcement arrived in the days before Christmas that Standard & Poor's had placed its long-term and short-term A/A-1 ratings under credit watch with negative implications.
The CreditWatch reflects the risk that Eni's cash generation is negatively influenced by the context of the oil market with crude oil prices in sharp decline. “There is strong pressure to downgrade the rating by one notch – wrote S&P – following the sharp decline in oil prices and in spite of the group's 2014 performance which is probably consistent with the current rating”. The rating agency will make a decision by mid-March.
