THE INDUSTRY BRAKING WEIGHT ON THE PRICE LISTS. SUDDEN STOP FOR MEDIASET AND THE BANKS
Bad news from the real economy. The European PMI Composite (services plus industry) fell more than expected in February to 52,7 from 52,9 in January. “The general picture is of a region in recovery – explained Chris Williamson, chief economist of Markit, the company that elaborates the survey – It is not a spectacular recovery but it is certainly a movement in the right direction, albeit with a couple of exceptions , see France”.
In Italy, Istat announced this morning that in December industrial orders fell month-on-month by 4,9%, from +2,1% in November. Against this backdrop, Piazza Affari (FTSE/Mib index -1,07% to 20219) falls, as do the other European stock exchanges. Frankfurt loses 1,23%, Paris –0,48%, Madrid -0,77%. London -0,26%.
Complicating the picture is the slowdown in Chinese industry: the PMI manufacturing index fell to its lowest level in the last seven months. But, above all, the echo of the deaths in the squares of Kiev weighs heavily: the Russian ruble falls for the fourth consecutive day against the dollar and reaches new lows never seen in history at 35,81. In this situation, the stability of the BTP is impressive, standing at 3,58%.
The economic situation hits the banks instead. Cala the Banco Popolare -2,64%. Standard & Poor's has revised its rating downwards to BB-: for the rating agency, the 1,5 billion euro capital increase will not be enough to remove the threat of further credit losses. Banking Pop.Milano -1,58%. Unicredit -1,95% Understanding -1,61% MontePaschi -0,56%.
It also goes down Generali -1,31% after yesterday the board of directors decided to bring the liability action against the former managing director Giovanni Perissinotto and the former general manager Raffaele Agrusti.
They do worse UnipolSai -1,6% Unipol -0,7% after the Antitrust opened an investigation into the non-compliance with the obligation to sell assets after the Fonsai operation. The company that controls the company of the same name and UnipolSai risks a very heavy fine: ranging from a minimum of €160m to a maximum of €1,6bn.
Mediaset it retreats by 4,72% after nine hikes in ten sessions. The share is penalized by a Credit Suisse report which speaks of a lower than expected performance of the advertising market in Italy and the risk of profit taking on the Italian broadcaster.
Based on a survey of advertising investors from various countries conducted in the first half of February, Credit Suisse writes that “the performance of advertising sales in the first quarter is lower than our expectations in Italy (-3%), France (flat), Great Britain (+4,2%) and Spain (+5,5%)”, although a marked improvement is expected in the second quarter especially in the UK and Spain (+11%). For Italy, the second quarter is seen as flat.
Telecom Italy -0,8%. Enel drops by 0,48%, Eni falls by 0,23%, Saipem + 1,71%. Fiat loses 0,47%, Finmeccanica -1,39% StM -1,14%. Prysmian worsens during the morning and comes to lose 2,19%: Goldman Sachs has decided to remove the stock from the Conviction Buy List, while confirming the Buy judgment and the target price at 20 euros.
The race does not stop Tiscali, which after yesterday's astonishing 14% increase, today marks another 10% gain and is suspended due to an excess increase at the indicative price of 0,0587 euros, the highest quotation since August 2011.
The program of the new governor of Sardinia Francesco Pigliaru aims to create jobs in the new technologies sector. According to Pigliaru, the digital world in Sardinia is a district that employs five thousand people and has enormous potential.
