Weighted down by the Eni galaxy and the index by Tod's Ftse Eb in the afternoon it slipped into negative territory and closed down by 0,42%. London is also in the red while the other main European price lists manage to finish the negotiations positively. The Dax rises by 0,87%, Paris +0,46% and Madrid +0,20%. The Moscow price list loses more than two percentage points. Today the Russian central bank cut the reference rate to 14% from 15% with the aim of relaunching the economy by containing inflation and anticipated that the rate reduction policy will continue in the coming months as well.
Athens loses 3,01%. The Greek question still keeps the market alert: on the one hand, the President of the European Commission, Juncker rules out a failure in the debt negotiations, on the other German Finance Minister Schaeuble does not rule out an Athens exit from the euro.
Lo spread Btp closed slightly higher at 91 basis points and a yield of 1,15%. In Italy deflation is slowing down: in February the Nic index with tobaccos recorded an increase of 0,4% on month and a decrease of 0,1% on year compared to a preliminary estimate which indicated -0,2%. In January, the decline was 0,6%. The decline in the dynamics of consumer prices is therefore slowing down.
On Wall Street, the indices travel down with the Dow Jones dropping 1,09% and the S&P500 0,88%. Overseas, the market was affected by the disappointing data on confidence calculated by the University of Michigan, which measures household confidence and which came in at 91,1 points after 95,4 in February and against analysts' expectations of 95,3 points . Producer prices were also worse than expected, which in February recorded a drop of 0,5% compared to January. Excluding the more volatile food and energy component, prices also fell by 0,5%. Expert expectations were for an increase of 0,2-0,3%.
Furthermore, the Petroleum Wti records a drop of 3,7% and is close to the threshold of 45 dollars a barrel. The quotations are also affected by the declarations of the International Energy Agency which said that the stabilization of prices is temporary and that stockpiles in the USA risk triggering new reductions.
It keeps getting weaker the euro against the dollar and closes at 1,0522 (-1,06%). During the day, the exchange rate dropped below the 1,05 threshold, hitting a new low at 1,0484.
A Business Square attention is paid to the energy group Eni which today unveiled the new three-year plan which envisages disposals of 2015 billion euro between 2018 and 8 and a 17% cut in investments. The buyback plan has also been suspended: its recovery will be evaluated when "strategic progress and the market scenario allow it".
Eni it loses 4,59%, the third worst stock in the Ftse Mib. Even worse is Saipem -5,78% which is affected by the forecasts made known by Eni. In particular, sales were triggered on Saipem when Eni announced its intention to postpone the deconsolidation process due to the increased volatility of the oil&gas markets: while remaining a target, its financial effects are not contained in the four-year plan presented today. In the oil galaxy, Tenaris also down -3,06%.
However, the worst stock ever on the Ftse Mib is Tod's which collapses by 6,27% after the disappointing indications on sales in the first ten weeks.
