Mib falls but holds 31,600; TIM still bullish

(Alliance News) - On Monday, the Mib closed bearish, with Wall Street closed for holidays, bringing the point bar down to the 31,600 area and breaking the three-session positive streak as trading rooms await the week's release of PMI data, final Eurozone inflation, as well as the expected minutes of the latest FOMC meeting.

Thus, the FTSE Mib closed down 0.2 percent at 31,676.05, the Mid-Cap closed just below par 45,495.64, the Small-Cap rallied 0.3 percent at 27,672.10, and Italy Growth closed ahead 0.2 percent at 8,144.02.

Paris' CAC 40 closed fractionally in the red, Frankfurt's DAX 40 gave up 0.2 percent, and London's FTSE 100 closed in the green by 0.2 percent.

On the Mib, it took the top spot for Telecom Italia, which advanced 5.9 percent to EUR0.2945 in its fourth bullish session.

High quarters also for Leonardo, which raised the bar 2.2% to EUR19.13 per share. The company on Monday announced that it had been awarded the "Military Space Cloud Architecture" study project under the National Military Research Plan.

As the company explained in a note, for the first time in Europe, similar to the terrestrial cloud, the project aims to define a space architecture capable of providing government agencies and the national Armed Forces with high-performance computing and storage capacity directly in space.

A2A, on the other hand, closed up 1.2 percent to EUR1.67 per share, following a 0.5 percent red note on the eve of trading.

Green also for Saipem, which rallied 1.1 percent, with three major funds reducing their short exposure to the stock. They are Capital Fund Management, Marshall Wace and PDT Partners.

The board of Eni -- in the green by 0.1 percent to EUR14.17 -- on Friday disclosed that it had approved consolidated results for the year and the fourth quarter of 2023, which closed with a net profit of EUR4.75 billion from EUR13.89 billion in the previous year. Adjusted net income attributable to Eni shareholders for the fourth quarter 2023 was EUR1.64 billion with a consolidated tax rate of about 48 percent. In FY2023, adjusted net income attributable to Eni shareholders was EUR8.3 billion and the tax rate was about 44%. UBS also cut target price to EUR17.00 from EUR17.50 with 'buy' recommendation.

Pirelli & C hurt, down 1.9 percent to EUR5.31 per share, on the heels of the previous session's 0.9 percent red.

On the Mid-Cap, Intercos gave up 3.2 percent with price at EUR14.66 per share, after two profitable closes.

Citadel Advisors lifts its short on Industrie De Nora to 0.60% from 0.59%, with the stock closing down 0.3%.

Juventus Football Club left 0.9 percent on the parterre. It reported Friday that it closed the first half of the 2023-2024 financial year with a loss of EUR95.1 million, worsening from a loss of EUR29.5 million in the first half of the 2022-2023 year. The company specifies in a note that "the first half of the current financial year is penalized by about EUR60 million at the economic level by direct effects related to the first team's non-participation in UEFA competitions."

Among small-caps, Newlat Food gave up 9.8 percent after announcing Friday that it had broken off negotiations for the acquisition of 100 percent of the capital of Princes Limited and its subsidiaries, after revising "the values initially proposed" that were rejected by the seller, Mitsubishi Corporation.

Abitare In closed down 1.8 percent, in its fifth session on the bearish side.

Esprinet, on the other hand, rallied 1.5 percent to EUR4.97 per share. It reported Wednesday that it had revenues from customer contracts of EUR4.0 billion in 2023, down 15 percent from EUR4.7 billion in 2022. Last quarter revenues were about EUR1.2 billion, down 15 percent from the same period in 2022 when they were EUR1.5 billion.

Among SMEs, strength on Elsa Solutions, which closed up double digits over 10 percent with new price at EUR4.50 per share.

Bellini Nautica, on the other hand, rallied 4.0 percent to EUR1.58 per share, on the heels of a more than 12 percent gain on Friday evening.

Farmacosmo rose 1.5 percent to EUR1.02 per share after the publication of figures for total revenues for 2023 that came in at EUR71.2 million, up 8.0 percent from 2022. The group explains that it continues to focus its efforts on profitability and is driven by the retail channel, which is increasingly predominant over B2B: as of Dec. 31, B2B revenues, down 20 percent annually, accounted for 30 percent of group revenues.

Esautomotion, on the other hand, gave up 3.7 percent after announcing Monday that it had consolidated revenues of EUR35.5 million in 2023, up 4.3 percent from EUR34.1 million in 2022.

Eprcommunication, among several other bearers, gave up 4.1 percent, marking its fifth negative session.

Among currencies, the euro changes hands at USD1.0768 against USD1.0771 recorded in Friday's European stock close, while the pound is worth USD1.2586 from USD1.2591 on Friday evening.

Brent crude is worth USD83.35 per barrel versus USD83.27 per barrel at Friday's close. Gold, meanwhile, trades at USD2,016.11 an ounce from USD2,020.50 an ounce on Friday night.

On Tuesday, the macroeconomic calendar includes, at 0800 CET, the data on car registrations from Italy, as well as France and Germany. At 1000 CET, coming up is the Eurozone current account data, followed an hour later by construction output.

At 1115 CET, BoE number one Andrew Bailey will speak.

At 1430 CET, the inflation figure will come from Canada while, at 1730 CET, there will be an auction of three-month, six-month and 52-week Treasury bonds.

On the corporate calendar, A2A and Eles are expected to report resslts.

By Maurizio Carta, Alliance News reporter

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