Without the contribution of Wall Street, which was closed for the July 4th holiday, the European stock markets, after four days of increases, experienced an adjustment session. The exception was Piazza Affari, in sharp decline due to sales in the banking sector starting from Monte Paschi.
The stock markets of the Old Continent are all down: the global Stoxx 600 index loses 0,3%, Paris 0,9%, Frankfurt 0,69%, Madrid -0,16%. London -0,84% also closed in the red. Little move the pound at 1,326 against the dollar, a level close to the lows of the last 30 years. Britain continues to reserve political surprises: Nigel Farage, leader of the Eurosceptic movement, has announced his resignation as UKIP secretary, the party that led the campaign to leave the European Union. Meanwhile, shareholders of the London Stock Exchange approved today the $30 billion merger with Deutsche Boerse, the operator of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. 99,89% of the shareholders voted in favor of the merger.
Brent oil is on par at $50,4. In Milan, Tra Saipem takes off +3,38% after an interview with the president Paolo Andrea Colombo. Up game, Eni closes in the red (-2,02%), Tenaris +0,5%.
Gold is up for the fourth consecutive dayrose 0,7% to $1.351 an ounce, the highest since March 2014.
Closing slightly down and above the lows for the BTPs, after last Friday's rise. The Btp/Bund spread fluctuated during the session close to 130 basis points, after falling to 119 last Friday (lowest since the end of May)
However, the real hotbed of crisis, not only financial, remains Milan under the growing pressure of the non-performing loans node. Monte Paschi suffered the heaviest attack -13,99%, to the new all-time low of 0,329 euros. The capitalization of the stock, suspended several times due to excessive reductions, fell below one billion euros.
The storm was unleashed by the news of a letter sent to the institution by the ECB asking it to dispose of 10 billion euros of NPLs (non-performing loans) out of the total gross 27,7 billion euros within 3 years. This is a request equal to double the target indicated in Montepaschi's industrial plan (5,5 billion by 2018). Furthermore, the sale of such a large amount of NPLs is extremely complicated in a market that values non-performing loans at a maximum of 20% of their nominal value.
He thought about making the climate red-hot this morning an article in the Financial Times which states that Matteo Renzi would be ready to "challenge" Brussels to recapitalize national credit institutions in any case, derogating from the bail-in commitments. The indiscretion was denied both by Brussels and by Palazzo Chigi, but the temperature still remained hot.
Still under fire Unicredit - 3,63% together with Mediobanca -4,1%. Banco Popolare also down -4,5%, but the worst in the sector is Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna which lost 6,73%, Ubi Banca -3,05%.
Sales of Italian financials did not spare asset management: Azimut -4%, FinecoBank -3,5%, Banca Generali -3,4%, Banca Mediolanum -3%. Insurance is also bad. Generali -3%, UnipolSai -2%.
Bad day also for Fiat Chrysler -4%, despite the good sales data in June. Mediaset thud -4%.
Among the few increases, the leap of Italmobiliare +13%, following the sale of Italcementi, stands out. Mondadori also rises +9%. Fincantieri+4%.
