TORO EXCHANGES, ITALY UNDER THE LENS OF INVESTORS
LA 7 MAKES CAIRO FLY +12%. TELCO DEVALUATE TELECOM
International finance returns to focus on Italy. These days it arrives in the Peninsula none other than Larry Fink, number one of BlackRock, the savings superpower. Also coming Philip Hildebrand, former president of the Swiss central bank. Both will personally review the polls which, by law, cannot be published in the media.
Italy, on the eve of the vote, is worrying. But this does not apply, at least for now, to the Germany. The recession rather than the uncertainty of the Italian vote or the excessive strength of the euro weighs nothing. Nothing seems capable of shaking the confidence of the Germans, to the delight of Frau Merkel, who is on her way to electoral victory in October. in February theZew index which measures the confidence of German investors rose to 48,2 from 31,5 in January, reaching its highest level in the last three years (April 2010). Economists' expectations indicated it at 35.
THE INDEXES
Wave of optimism this morning at Asian bags: The MSCI Asia Pacific index is at an 18-month high.
Tokyo rises by 0,78%, driven by the rebound of Tokyo Electric Power+ 6,6%: Shinzo Abe, during his next visit to Washington, will announce to Obama that Japan will cancel the stop to nuclear power decided after Fukushima. The rise in Hong Kong +0,15% was more moderate, while Shanghai -0,1% fell slightly.
Opens the week short by higher Wall Street: Dow Jones +0,39, S&P +0,73 and Nasdaq +0,68%. S&P returns to a five-year high.
According to the New York Timesthe US president Barack Obama he would be ready to reopen the dialogue with the Republicans on the issue of exceeding the public debt ceiling.
The earnings season is drawing to a close as major companies and nearly 80% of S&P 500 stocks have now reported their accounts. The balance that emerges is positive: Bloomberg reports that around 70% of companies have beaten estimates.
Google broke through the $800 per share threshold for the first time, setting an all-time high at $806,85 per share with a market capitalization of $266 billion. So the ride that has led the technological giant to earn 13% this year and 30% over the last 12 months continues. Apple retreats instead of 1%. Morgan Stanley writes in a note today that the company could decide to launch a mini iPhone in China, a smartphone to be sold for 330 dollars.
Le European stock exchanges find their way up on optimism about Germany's economy.
Paris rose by 1,8%, London +0,9%, Frankfurt +1,6%.
All sectors gained and food was among the best (Stoxx +1,6%), thanks to the good results of the French Danone, up 5,9% after closing the fourth quarter of 2012 with better than expected results.
Piazza Affari closes with the FtseMib index up 1,5%.
Situation of stability for the 10-year BTP, traded at a yield of 4,39%, with a spread of 276, unchanged. This morning the Madrid government very easily placed all the expected 4 billion of short-term government bonds (three and nine months) with yields decreasing compared to the previous auction.
THEeuro this morning it rose to 1,342 against the dollar (from 1,338) and slightly higher against the Swiss franc to 1,2348 (from 1,2342)
TLC DISEASE IN EUROPE. BUT CAIRO FLY
The "worst" sector in Europe is that of telecommunications (unchanged), weighted down by English descent Vodafone -2% who blamed the downgrading to underperform (from marketperform) by the American broker Bernestein, who speaks of a "structural decline" for the mobile telephony industry.
Telecom Italy it fell by 0,4%. Meanwhile, the advice of telco decided to write down the value of Telecom Italia shares to 1,2 euros.
Meanwhile, political controversies rage around La 7: Telecom Italia Media it fell by 9% after the news that the group chose to start an exclusive negotiation with Cairo Communication, up by 12%, for the sale of the TV station only. While the multiplexes for now will remain within the Telecom Italia group. President Franco Bernabé expects to close the deal within the next two weeks. Finally, it was learned that in the Telecom board of directors Renato Pagliaro, Tarak Ben Ammar, Elio Catania and Gaetano Micciché have pronounced themselves in favor of Clessidra's proposal.
INSIDE BUSINESS PLACE
The economy is improving in the world (alas, not in Italy) are shining luxury stocks: Tod’s it gained 5,3% after Nomura raised its recommendation to neutral from a veteran and its target price to 112 euros from 94 euros. Ferragamo rose by 3,6%, Luxottica +1,5%.
On the upside of Milan Stock Exchange financial stocks participated well.
Lead the race Unicredit +2,4%. The bank's board approved a "plan to further reduce branches in Italy". The CEO Federico Ghizzoni announced it: 'We are adding another 350 to close by 2015, of which 110 this year. It is an increase compared to the 150 closures already envisaged in the business plan and which we already completed last year'. The savings, in real estate alone, are in the order of 45 million due to the 350 additional closures decided today, which are equal to around 10% of the 3.600 branches the Group has in Italy.
Understanding +2,1%, MontePaschi +3,8%, Banco Popolare +1,6%, Pop.Emilia +4,1%.
Among the insurance Generali rose by 2,3%, Unipol + 0,8%.
leap of I Mediaset, up 5,1% despite Silvio Berlusconi declaring today that the company will close 2012 with a loss.
“I haven't seen it in detail, but, as a layman, it seems to me a plan with a rather high execution risk.' Federico Ghizzoni, CEO of Unicredit, specifying that he speaks as a creditor of the publishing group, thus judged the RCS mediagroup reorganization plan which also envisages the sale of the historic headquarters of 'Il Corriere della Sera'. 'It must be evaluated with the utmost attention – he commented – Since we have all gone through periods of restructuring, it can be said that selling assets today is not an easy task'. 'I believe – he concluded – that it is a very ambitious plan but with a certain implicit risk of execution”.
Among other industrial stocks, Finmeccanica an increase of 2% Ansaldo also did well +1,6%. On the investigation front, the ties between Orsi and the Northern League and the interventions in favor of the ex-wife of the Minister of Economy Vittorio Grilli are holding the table. Economy Minister Vittorio Grilli writes in a letter to the editor of Il Sole 24 Ore: 'I can only reiterate that I have never asked for any help, in favor of my ex-wife, Lisa Lowenstein, to settle the latter's debt situation relating to his autonomous entrepreneurial activity. In the letter Grilli also defines as "irrelevant" the episode of a few years ago, of the request by the then general manager of Finmeccanica Alessandro Pansa ('with whom I have had personal friendship for years') to the bankers of Mediobanca to restructure the debt of company of the minister's ex-wife.
All over Europe the utility: Enel +1,8%, Enel Green Power +1,3%, Snam +1,3%.
Among the few stocks in decline on the Milanese list is Fiat which lost 1,3% after the still heavily negative data on car sales in Europe.
Pirelli rose by 2,1%, Fiat Industrial +0,7%. ,StM +0,5%, Prysmian +2%.
