Still evidence of a rebound for Piazza Affari: after a troubled week, marked by sharp falls that brought the Ftse Mib index below 16.000 points, on Friday the main basket of the Milan stock exchange tries to close the week in positive terms and records a increase around 3%, to 16.258,79 points just before noon. The other European lists are also breathing: London, Frankfurt and Paris all earn around one and a half percentage points. Oil tries to rise again, after the WTI fell to 26 dollars a barrel on Thursday: it is above 27, with Brent rising by 4% to 31,29 dollars. The euro weakens slightly against the dollar: it is worth 1,128 dollars. Spreads falling below 150 basis points: around 12 noon it is reported at 145 basis points, with the ten-year bond yield at 1,66%.
They are always there banks in the spotlight at Piazza Affari: yesterday the protagonists of the wave of sales and today of the coverings, with the M&A scenarios returning to the fore. The sector is recovering across Europe, with the Eurostoxx advancing by 3,5% also supported by the 16% leap of Commerzbank in Frankfurt. The best performance among the lenders in Piazza Affari at the moment is that of Banco Popolare which jumps by more than 10% above 7 euros in view of the closing of the merger agreement with Bpm (+6,46% to 0,625 euros around 11,30), which could arrive on the weekend of 20 February. The CEO of the Bank Pier Francesco Saviotti this morning he hoped that it could close for next weekend: "Let's hope - he replied to reporters - we are working, we are close, there are some things to fix but I am confident". Finally, Saviotti underlined that in the confrontation he had with the ECB on the integration project, "everything went well" and that there is no need for any capital increase for the operation.
Among the banking strong leap of Unicredit (+7,5% to 3,10 euros) which had been heavily penalized in the last few sessions and by Bper (+6,29% to 3,99 euros) which released the data substantially in line with market expectations. Analysts underline the stability of the interest margin and the good performance of fee and commission income. Intesa Sanpaolo also did well rising above 2,4 euros and Mediobanca (+2,43% to 5,895). The only banking stock that continues to suffer is Ps, which sees the possibility of a merger with Ubi vanish and which at the end of the morning loses more than 5% to 0,4598 euros per share. In the European sector, the performance of Commerzbank should be noted, which leapt in Frankfurt by 16% after closing 2015 with a profit of over 1 billion euro and with the return to the dividend of 20 cents per share. The prospects for 2016 are also positive. In Frankfurt it also leaps Deutsche Bank (+10,9%) while in Paris it limits the increase to +1,5%.
In the middle of the day the queen of the Ftse Mib is Unipolsai, which gains more than 13% to 1,762 euros per share after the presentation of the accounts, which saw profits fall by 5,8% on an annual basis, to 738 million. The negative extraordinary tax item of 84 million weighs on the group's accounts, in addition to the 8,8% drop in deposits, down to 13,982 billion. Dividend down. Well instead the accounts of Unipol, whose share is in fact also among the best in the Ftse Mib, with a gain of over 7% to 3,124 euros.
