Backed by the sprint of banking sector led by Intesa and Unicredit, Piazza Affari gains momentum in the afternoon and closes up 1,5%. After a cautious morning, in the wake of the gray smoke on the agreement for Greece and the drop in the Zew index in Germany, the other European markets also wiped out their losses and surprisingly closed in positive territory with the exception of Frankfurt, unchanged. Paris +0,56%, London +0,33%, where Vodafone falls after second quarter services revenues down 1,4%, excluding impact of acquisitions and currency fluctuations This is the first decline in ten quarters and a worse result than analysts' expectations (-0,7%). The euro-dollar exchange rate rose slightly to 1,2715. Instead, oil retraces to 85,51 dollars a barrel and gold to 1.728 dollars an ounce.
European stock markets regained confidence in the last hour of trading encouraged by the improvement on Wall Street which, after a downhill game, then recovered ground. At the end of the European markets, the Dow Jones rose by 0,39% while the Nasdaq lost 0,06%. Home Depot is doing well, benefiting from better-than-expected accounts and the rise in 2012 targets. Microsoft down after the announcement of Steven Sinofsky's resignation for personal reasons, father of Window 8. In the US, the market is looking at the fiscal cliff: to create consensus on solution Barack Obama sees American union and think tank leaders today, while tomorrow he will meet the CEOs of Corporate America and on Friday the Democratic and Republican leaders of Congress.
Athens closes up 0,37% in anticipation of the Eurogroup meeting on November 20th. In his first press conference, François Hollande urged not to leave Athens: “Greece awaits the support of the IMF and Europe. It is due to him, also to put an end to doubts about the integrity of the euro area”. Today Athens managed to place four billion short-term government bonds, approaching the five billion bonds that mature on November 16th. In detail, it placed 1,3 billion 13-week bonds at the auction at a rate of 4,2%, and 2,763 billion one-month bonds at a rate of 3,95%. Now awaiting Thursday's auction with which it could cover the entire amount necessary for the November 16 deadlines. According to reports from Bild, anticipating tomorrow's edition, the German government intends to merge the tranches of the payments scheduled for 2012 to Greece into a single payment of 44 billion: To the 31,3 billion scheduled for the second quarter of 2012 ( not yet paid), add 5 billion for the third and 8,3 billion for the fourth. According to the tabloid, the Greek government has asked to obtain a single payment from the German finance ministry.
Today the Treasury has managed to place all 6,5 billion euros a year on offer with the average rate falling to 1,762% from 1,941%. The Btp-Bund spread closes at 362 points after a peak in the morning at 375 points. “It is premature to talk about additional manoeuvres, in our opinion it seems to me there is no need. Until 2014, the accounts are in order permanently”, said Minister Vittorio Grilli on the difference in the deficit/GDP estimates of the European Commission compared to those of the government.
In Piazza Affari today the eyes are on bank quarterly. Intesa, which closed up by 5,19%, archived a profit for the quarter of 414 million, down by 11,9% compared to the 470 million of the previous quarter due to the higher tax burden. But the result is better than analysts' expectations. And the CEO Cucchiani confirmed a dividend at least equal to that of the 2011 financial year. Unicredit also did well, +4,39% which closed the quarter with profits of 335 million euros, above expectations. Mps +5,06% and Bpm +4,57%. Parmalat +3,57%.
Collapse on the Ftse Mib Tod's -6,28% on the day of the accounts: the growing results have not convinced the analysts. Revenues amounted to 749,9 million euros, +7,3% compared to the same period of 2011. Pirelli -2,82%, on the disappointment of the revision of the revenue targets for 2012, Enel Green power -2,22%, Fiat Industrial -2,01%. A2a dropped 1,15% in the wake of the drop in utilities due to disappointment with the E.on group, which cut its 2013 targets. Enel dropped 0,22%.
