After a markedly downward start, due to the bad news from Wall Street, European stock exchanges regained momentum following the news of the presentation of the 6,4 billion public accounts correction package by Greece. Milan, together with Madrid, was the fastest exchange to recover parity in the late morning, while Paris, London and Frankfurt still show a loss of between 0,7% and one percentage point. The measures decided by Athens, which will be illustrated tomorrow by Prime Minister George Papandreou to the president of the Eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker, envisage an acceleration of privatizations, cuts in public spending and interventions on revenues such as tax increases and fewer exemptions. The tax plan should unlock the next tranche (12 billion euros) of the international loan. The diplomatic work has not served, for now, to reassure the bond markets, which jumped by 50 basis points in the morning: in the middle of the day, the Greek two-year bond recorded a yield of 25,44%, the ten-year bond rose by 11 basis points at 15,8%. It is the effect of the cut by Moody's of three rating steps which caused the rating to be lowered to Caa1 from B1, with a negative outlook.
BANKS: TODAY THE BLACK JERSEY GOES TO UBI
As for Piazza Affari, the spotlights remain on the banking system. The market punished Ubi with a sharp reduction, which yesterday fixed the price of the shares offered as an option in the capital increase at 3,808 euros, up to a maximum of one billion euros. The exercise period of the option rights will begin on June 6th and end on the 24th of the same month. Mps is still slightly down (-0,1%), after yesterday's drop of 7 percentage points. Conversely, after a negative start, Intesa recovered parity while Unicredit moved into positive territory with an increase of 0,9%. The oil companies are weak: Eni (-0,8%) and Saipem which loses 0,6%, as opposed to Tenaris (+1,3%). Cir was also down (-0,2%) despite the partnership agreement between Sorgenia and the private equity giant Kkr for the production of wind energy in France. Collection of around 60 million is expected for Sorgenia with a positive effect on the net financial position of more than 150 million. Finally, there is great expectation for the next opening of Wall Street. The question is whether the index will be able to rebound after the worst session in 10 months. The turning point, however, could come with the macro data, in particular that on the new weekly unemployment benefit claims, estimated to fall to 415 thousand units from the previous 424 thousand. Also worth following are the data on industrial orders for April, expected to drop by 1%.
