MILAN CLOSES IN RED BUT DEFENDS INTESA. US EMPLOYMENT RISES BUT LESS THAN EXPECTED
Closing of the week down for the European lists. A wave of sales arriving from the USA favored the decline. The big money managers, the real protagonists of the rally in the first part of 2014, are withdrawing to the domestic market, also to cope with fewer purchases on the Fed's markets.
Frankfurt is the worst place in the Old Continent with a drop of 2%, a short distance away is Madrid -1,9%, while Paris falls by 1%, returning to the levels of February and London -0,8%. Banco Espirito Santo collapses in Lisbon, the stock is suspended at a theoretical price of 0,12 euros which would correspond to a 40% drop.
Milan resisted for most of the session in positive territory, only to get worse in the final. The Ftse Mib index closed at -1,01%, returning to the May levels. Some pressure also on the Btp: the yield of the Btp rises to 2,74% (+5 basis points), the yield of the German Bund falls to 1,13% and the spread widens to 160 basis points (+7 basis points) .
In the USA, modest changes for the indices: Dow Jones, S&P500 and NASDAQ are aligned on a drop of half a point. To curb the effect of the brilliant data on the manufacturing industry are the employment data, less positive than expected. US nonfarm payrolls increased by 209.000 versus an increase of 298.000 in June, the Labor Department said. The unemployment rate stood at 6,2% in July from 6,1% in the previous month: thus a certain fragility of the US labor market emerges, discouraging rate hikes. July was the sixth month in a row that US employment showed an expansion of more than 200.000 jobs, a trend not seen since 1997.
The excellent start of the bankers was also sluggish: only Intesa Sanpaolo shines (+1,2%) thanks to its accounts. Tod's is the best (+1,7%) among the blue chips. Bad Gtech (-3,9%), Yoox (-3,8%) and Wdf (-3,8%). Declining Fiat on the day of the merger meeting with Chrysler. The People's Bank of China joined the group with a 2% stake. CNH -2,5%, Finmeccanica -1%.
Prismian -0,4%. The cable company released its half-year data yesterday evening: adjusted EBITDA fell by 28% to 204 million euros. Net of extraordinary items, eliminating the negative effects produced by the Western Link project, net profit doubled to 80 million euros. The order backlog rose to 3 billion euros.
The better performance of Piazza Affari depended on the brilliant results of Intesa Sanpaolo +1,2% after having nearly reached 3%. Unicredit also rises +2,2%. The bank sold 81,4% of the German DAB Bank to the French group BNP Paribas for a value of 354 million euro with a capital gain of 180 million. Mediobanca +0,8%, MontePaschi -0,1%. FinecoBank +0,1%, regains the positive sign after announcing a growing half-year.
The Milanese stock market is also defending itself thanks to the holding of Generali which drops by only 0,2%. Mediobanca rating Neutral from Underperform. Telecom Italia gains 0,3%. TIM Participações, the holding company that controls Brazilian assets, released its quarterly results, profit fell 5,2% year over year to 366 million reais ($161,7 million), in line with expectations .
The best blue chip is Tod's +1,6%. GTech falls the most -3,9%: Kepler Cheuvreux cut the recommendation to Hold da Buy. Yoox and Wdf both fell sharply -3,8%. Conversely, Rcs +3%, Brembo +2,8% and Italcementi +1,2% rose.
