Mib shy in mid-session, utilities good

(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari rose little in mid-session, continuing the mild movements seen since the pre-opening, with Italy's trade balance data not shaking investor sentiment.

Italian exports fell 4.5 percent month-on-month in September and 6.6 percent year-on-year, losing ground to both European and non-EU countries. Same dynamics for imports, down 3.1 percent on the month before and down 21 percent on the year in September, with declines from both EU and non-EU countries.

As a result, Italy posted a trade surplus of EUR2.35 billion in September compared to a trade surplus of EUR2.07 billion in August and a deficit of EUR6.69 billion in September 2022.

The FTSE Mib is up 0.2 percent to 29,518.79, Mid-Cap loses 0.2 percent to 41,770.32, Small-Cap gives up 0.4 percent to 25,854.73, and Italy Growth rises 0.1 percent to 7,666.36.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 is down 0.5 percent to 7,451.52, Paris' CAC 40 falls 0.2 percent to 7,192.26 and Frankfurt's DAX 40 rises 0.5 percent to 15,827.44.

Leading the bullish on Piazza Affari's main list is A2A, which dictates the pace with a 3.3 percent rise and reflects the good momentum of the entire utility sector, with ERG and Hera following with increases of 1.9 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.

Still doing well is Leonardo, up 1.6 percent, after a few hours ago it announced the launch of a secondary public offering in the US to sell 16.5 million ordinary shares in its subsidiary DRS, representing 6.3 percent of the latter's capital.

Following the offering, Leonardo US holding will hold approximately 74 percent of the issued and outstanding common shares of DRS or 73 percent if the option to acquire additional shares is exercised in full by the underwriting banks.

"Leonardo intends to use the proceeds of the transaction to increase its financial flexibility for value-creating investments and acquisitions while, at the same time, maintaining a solid financial structure," the company explained.

On the other side of the basket, DiaSorin does worse than all at the opening, losing 2.6 percent at the turnaround, with trading volumes below the basket average.

Enel rises 1.4 percent and Eni loses 0.8 percent a day after Italy's competition watchdog fined six energy suppliers more than EUR15 million for raising consumer prices despite a law seeking to stabilize electricity and gas bills.

The largest fines were imposed precisely on Enel - EUR10 million - and Eni - EUR5 million - "which unilaterally changed prices for more than four million consumers on the basis of contractual clauses that allow the companies to decide at their own discretion whether and when to change the tariff."

On the Mid-Cap, Piaggio & C. gives up 0.9 percent the day after announcing that it has signed a EUR200 million revolving credit facility with a pool of banks with a term of four years, with an option to extend for an additional year at the company's discretion.

The board of directors of Rai Way -- down 0.4 percent -- reviewed and approved the interim report for the nine months ended September 30, which closed with a net profit of EUR69.8 million, up 24 percent from the nine-month figure for 2022, when it was EUR56.3 million.

Fincantieri rises 0.9 percent. The company reported yesterday that it closed the first nine months with revenues up to EUR5.38 billion from EUR5.32 billion in the same period a year earlier. For the full year, Fincantieri expects revenues in line with 2022, a margin of 5 percent, and NFP almost unchanged from the end of last year.

Tamburi Investment Partners -- down 0.1 percent -- reported that it ended the nine months with a pro forma consolidated profit of EUR73.6 million from EUR119.4 million and equity reaching EUR1.29 billion, after dividend payments of EUR21.7 million and share buybacks of EUR15.6 million. As of September 30, total revenues were EUR1.17 million from EUR1.36 million pro forma for the same period last year.

On the Small-Cap, ePrice does best of all, accomplishing a 24 percent rise, but the stock is still suspended for excess volatility shortly after the start of trading.

Caleffi - up 1.7 percent - reported Wednesday that consolidated revenues in the first nine months were around EUR40.7 million, up 2.0 percent from September 30, 2022, when they were EUR39.9 million.

Somec climbs 3.3% after reporting earlier that its subsidiary Bluesteel Srl won a new contract in the UK worth about GBP9 million-about EUR10.5 million at today's exchange rate-relating to the redevelopment project of an iconic tower, a symbol of 1960s London.

Bluesteel, part of the Naval Architectural and Civil Facades Engineered Systems division and active at the European level as a player in the fabrication and installation of curtain walls and window frames, will work on behalf of one of the UK's leading real estate companies, handling the design, supply and installation of the building's new entrance pavilion, the shielding of the plant area and the new volume that will be built to crown the tower.

Triboo drops 0.5 percent. The smallcap ended the first nine months with revenues down to EUR57.6 million from EUR68.7 million in the same period last year.

Adjusted Ebitda decreased to EUR5.4 million EUR8.7 million, with the Digital division reporting adjusted Ebitda of EUR5.3 million and the Media division reporting EUR1.5 million.

"We are confident that in the last quarter of the year, which historically represents a very important period for the group's business thanks to events such as Black Friday and the Christmas holidays, we will have an important increase in both revenues and margins," said Giulio Corno, CEO of Triboo.

Among SMEs, Portobello closed up 60 percent and is also climbing 32 percent today, with the stock currently suspended due to too much volatility.

RES rises 1.8 percent after obtaining a EUR8 million loan from Banco BPM for the construction of its plastics recycling plant.

The five-year floating-rate credit line with eight months of pre-amortization is backed by an 80% SACE Green guarantee and finances the construction in Pettoranello, in the province of Isernia, of Phase I of the project to build an integrated center for the thrust sorting and recycling of plastics aimed at the production of secondary raw materials and the recovery of process waste by transformation into pyrolytic oil.

Datrix also did well, up 11 percent. The SME won a major European call for proposals - Horizon Europe - in the area of AI for healthcare.

The research project is called "Better," an acronym for Better Real-World Health-Data Distributed Analytics Research Platform, and aims to create a user-friendly platform that physicians in European hospitals will be able to use to view patient data - comparable and filterable by pathology or genetic parameters - and train predictive models, while complying with the most stringent privacy regulations globally related to health information, all through a federated learning and distributed AI approach.

In total, this is EUR10 million in funds allocated at the European level, about half of which will be used for genetic sequencing, since the genetic component is essential in the diseases being analyzed, divided into three macro-areas and as many applications: rare pediatric diseases, autism spectrum disorders in children and adolescents, and congenital visual problems, with a focus on retinal diseases.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed Thursday down 0.3 percent to 33,424.41, the Shanghai Composite lost 0.7 percent to 3,050.93 and the Hang Seng gave up 1.4 percent to 17,832.82.

In New York on Wednesday evening, the Dow closed up 0.5 percent to 34,991.21, the Nasdaq gained 0.1 percent to 14,103.84 while the S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent to 4,502.88.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0846 against USD1.0853 recorded at Wednesday's European stock close while the pound was worth USD1.2396 from USD1.2435 last night.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD81.11 per barrel from USD81.62 per barrel at Tuesday's close. Gold, meanwhile, trades at USD1,966.74 an ounce from USD1,960.48 an ounce last night.

Thursday's macroeconomic calendar includes, at 1230 CET, a speech by Christine Lagarde.

In the afternoon, from the US, at 1430 CET, initial claims for unemployment benefits are expected, and at 1515 CET, it will be the turn of US industrial production.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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