On a day of strong volatility, the European stock exchanges, which went into the red in mid-morning, closed higher: the Ftse Mib rose by 2,19% to 13.769,44 points thanks to the support of the banking sector which achieved a decisive rebound. The Dax recorded a rise of 1,85%, the Cac of 1,41% and the Ftse 100 of 0,87%.
The EuroStoxx50 index rises by 2%, recovering the losses of the morning: banking and the auto sector rebound, real estate among the worst. Banks also did well, starting with the French ones such as Socgen and Crédit Agricole, on which sales were unleashed yesterday following rumors of a possible downgrade by Moody's due to exposure to Greek debt. The recovery gains momentum from the afternoon as possible positive developments on the Greek situation take shape. Reassurances come from Germany on the Greek debt front: "The absolute priority - said German Chancellor Angela Merkel - is to avoid an uncontrolled default because this would not only affect Greece and the risk that it could impact all of us, or at least most of the countries of the eurozone, is very high”.
In the early afternoon, however, Merkel and Finnish premier Jyrki Katainen, who met, said they were confident they could reach an agreement on the collateral requested from Greece in exchange for new economic support. Tomorrow there will be a conference call between the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, the German chancellery Angela Merkel and the Greek premier, Georges Papandreu. Europe could then receive support from the BRICs: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the large emerging countries, will discuss the possibility of financially helping the European Union to overcome the current crisis next week, according to what was stated by the Brazilian Minister of Finance, Guido Mantega.
The euro recovered against the dollar above 1,365 and WTI oil rose above 88,5 despite the IEA cutting its estimates for crude oil demand for 2011-2012. Wall Street, which started with little movement, is trying to recover. At around 18pm, the Nasdaq is up 0,35% while the Dow Jones is around parity at +0,06%. In the meantime, the IBD index which measures the optimism of the economy rose to 39,9 points, up from the August value, set at 35,8 points.
At the start of the session, the rumors that China could buy Italian government bonds launched by the Financial Times supported the increases in European stock markets. The Treasury confirmed the meeting with the delegation of Chinese investors which would have taken place on 6 September but as far as emerges the investment opportunities on the Chinese table would have an industrial nature. “'We did not request any particular help from China. Demand for Italian government bonds is holding up”, said the Undersecretary for the Economy, Antonio Gentile. Today the Treasury has managed to place 3,865 billion BTPs over 5 years against requests equal to 4,945 billion but yields have soared to 5,6% from 4,93%, the highest level reached in the 12 years since the introduction of the 'EUR. 2,62 billion unissued BTPs were also placed on the market.
The tension does not ease after the BTP auction with the spread between the yields of ten-year BTPs and the bund, which in the morning had broken through 400 for the first time since the beginning of August and remains in the 404 area while purchases on the German titles. The differentials of the other peripheral countries are also widening: Portugal at 960, Ireland at 709, Greece at 2.233, Spain at 371. At the moment the spread has settled at 392. Tension also on the differential of the 5 BTP years that in the morning breaks through the record to 456 points.
THE BANKS REBOUNCE
ATLANTIA IS NEUTRAL FOR NOMURA
Day of rebound for bank stocks: Unicredit rises by 7,43%, Intesa by 6,34%, Ubi Banca by 8%, Banco Popolare by 5,50% and Bpm by 8,35%. The board of directors took place today in Piazza Meda: on the table of the institute capital increase and governance that could move towards a dual solution. The employee unions then opened up to a possible 200 million euro investment by Matteo Arpe through the Sator fund which would imply Arpe's management of the bank. The CEO of Unicredit in the Financial Times reassured the possible recapitalization of Unicredit by saying that the shareholders are ready to support it. It also recovers energy. Eni returns to positive territory and closes at +0,84% while the industrialists, on whom pressure returned in the session, close weakly. Fiat loses 1,11%. Sergio Marchionne confirmed the 2011 targets for Fiat and Chrysler at the Frankfurt motor show. Atlantia dropped 1,25% in the wake of Nomura's downgrade which lowered the rating to neutral from buy.
