ALL EYES ARE TURNED ON DRAGONS. NAGEL AND LIGRESTI INVESTIGATED BY THE PROSECUTOR
The big day has arrived. Today, as usual, ECB President Mario Draghi will hold the most awaited press conference in the history of the central bank of the eurozone.
The German press predicts that Draghi will present a plan for the purchase of Italian and Spanish securities at the ECB meeting. The crux concerns the granting of the banking license to the nascent ESM, which would thus have unlimited firepower at its disposal in defense of the euro and in an anti-spread function. But on this point the Bundesbank appears adamant.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve did not take the extraordinary decisions that many expected at the end of the FOMC. However, the central bank confirmed the "zero interest rate" policy and admitted that the economic situation requires careful monitoring: quantitative easing is only postponed until September.
As expected, the eve of the eurozone was agitated: Monti, on a visit to Helsinki from the hawk Katainen notes, for the first time, that "Aid could be necessary to loosen the grip of the spread". For his part, the Finnish premier declared that the European sovereign bond market is not normal and that in some countries yields are too high. But the Helsinki line essentially does not change.
The markets, on the eve of the confrontation, remained cautious but optimistic. The disappointment with the outcome of the FOMC has not affected Wall Street in a particular way. The umpteenth incident of an operator who relies on automatic purchase and sale programs has caused more sensation: in the space of half an hour 128 stocks, including Alcoa and Ford, have undergone thrilling fluctuations. After the Libor scandal and the flop of Facebook's IPO, the market's functioning problems, under the stress of speculation chasing margins in an increasingly difficult climate, are by now too many to be defined as casual.
Asia is also awaiting Draghi's conference with some hope. In Tokyo, the index is about to close with a rise of around half a percentage point. Down Hong Kong -0,78%.
The European stock exchanges fluctuated around parity throughout the session, amid many trend changes, to then close with a fractional rise. Piazza Affari closed at +0,27%, London at +1,38%, Paris rose at +0,91% while Frankfurt fell at -0,26%. The 23-year spread fell 453 basis points to 5,89, with the yield down to XNUMX%.
There is certainly no shortage of "yellow" themes in Piazza Affari. First of all the Fondiaria affair. Yesterday it was communicated that, during the capital increase, 68% of Fonsai and 73% of Unipol were subscribed. The Bologna-based company, with a 37% stake in Fonsai, paid the largest part of the 666 million euro flowing into Fonsai's coffers on a pro-rata basis while waiting for the consortium to take over the remaining part of the operation (up to 1,1 billion). Unicredit follows, with 7%, while 19% comes from the market.
But the bombshell news comes from the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office: the CEO of Mediobanca, Alberto Nagel is under investigation in competition with Salvatore Ligresti for obstacle to the supervisory authority. It all stems from the now famous letter whose existence Mediobanca denied right up to the end. But the sheet of paper, signed by Ligresti and by Nagel himself, exists and is in the hands of the substitute prosecutor Luigi Orsi. As is known, it provides for the liquidation of the Ligresti family for 42 million plus other benefits. According to Mediobanca it is a simple list of Ligresti's requests, the suspicion is that it was an underhand agreement to remove the obstacle to the Fonsai-Unipol operation. A few days after the signing, the Consob exemption from the mandatory takeover bid for Unipol arrived, conditioned however by the veto on any economic benefit for the Ligresti.
Beyond the penal aspects, albeit very relevant, what could be the impact for the Fonsai-Unipol marriage? Consob could impose on Unipol (which claims to be extraneous to and unaware of the alleged agreement) the takeover bid on Premafin.
Changing of the guard, meanwhile, at the top of the Genreali. Yesterday, Generali's board of directors co-opted Mario Greco, appointing him Group CEO and General Manager of the Company. The group's consolidated results as at 30 June 2012 will be announced today and will be released tomorrow morning. The conference call on the half-year results will follow, an occasion for the debut of Greco himself in his new guise, flanked by the financial director Raffaele Agrusti.
The writ of summons by the Igli holding (Gavio family) against Impregilo was filed yesterday morning at the Court of Milan in which the appeal is requested of the resolutions of the ordinary shareholders' meeting of last July 17 which had sanctioned by a handful of votes the victory of the antagonist Salini, with the consequent zeroing of the board led by Fabrizio Palenzona. 'We are carrying out all the necessary actions' the number one of the Tortona group, Beniamino Gavio, told Radiocor, hinting that other initiatives by Igli will follow, while the new board led by Claudio Costamagna is already laying the foundations for give substance to the merger project between Salini and Impregilo.
In Piazza Affari, among the Milanese blue chips, the best performance was that of Parmalat up 9,5% after good quarterly results. Cheuvreux raised the judgment to performer da underperform. Lottomatica thanks to today's +2% it reaches its highest level since October 2009. The sharp drop in Mediaset which lost 10% hit by a flurry of target price cuts by international brokers. Final leap of 4,5% for Enel Green Power after the quarterly communication.
Bank stocks are recovering, but not too much, waiting for the ECB: Unicredit + 0,4% Understanding + 0,5% Banco Popolare + 0,7% MontePaschi + 1,7%.
Fiat it turned up 0,1% in the afternoon after posting a 2% loss in the morning. In July, the car market decreased by 21,39% to 108.826 units. Faced with these numbers Sergio Marchionne announced, in the meeting with the secretaries of the trade unions that signed the Pomigliano agreement, that decisions on future investments in Italy will only be taken in October.
Also Finmeccanica almost completely eliminates the -5% of the opening and closes with a drop of 0,7%. A2A jumped 1% from -4% after better-than-expected quarterly results. Among the mid caps, Rcs falls by 4,4%, Geox -8,9%. Day to forget for refiners: Erg -3% Saras -4%. Both were downgraded today by Bank of America.
