Mib slows rally but remains above 30,000 points

(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari closed lower on Thursday's session, halting the upward run that had taken the Italian stock exchange's largest-capitalization list above 30,000 points.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said, "There was a brief period of weakness in European equities today, reflecting some nervousness ahead of next week's central bank meetings."

"After rallying since the end of October, closing some of the margin against the U.S. indices, a lot of good news seems to be discounted for the DAX and others. It will be a tall order to avoid the aftermath of the post-Fed-BoE-ECB fallout in the markets just as investors turn their thoughts to Christmas."

The FTSE Mib closed Thursday down 0.7 percent to 30,121.77, the Mid-Cap fell 0.1 percent to 42,306.48, the Small-Cap fell 0.4 percent to 26,387.69, and Italy Growth gained 0.1 percent to 8,024.88.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 closed around parity, Paris' CAC 40 lost 0.1 percent as did Frankfurt's DAX 40.

Banca Monte dei Paschi dropped 3.9 percent after the stock updated its 52-week high at EUR3.44 during Wednesday's session. Of note, Psquared Asset Management cut its short to 0.36 percent from 0.70 percent previously.

Among the bullish few, Pirelli rose 0.4 percent - on the stock, HSBC cut its target price to EUR5.30 from the previous EUR5.50 - and FinecoBank gained 1.6 percent.

CNH Industrial--down 0.8%--announced that as part of its USD1 billion share buyback program, the company completed transactions in the period Nov. 27 to Nov. 28, for 2.5 million shares and a total of EUR23.6 million.

Banca Mediolanum lost 0.3 percent the day after reporting Wednesday that November net inflows were EUR136 million, with the total since the beginning of the year rising to EUR5.92 billion.

Net inflows in asset management are EUR375 million, for a cumulative EUR3.35 billion. New loans disbursed amount to EUR217 million, with the year-to-date figure reaching EUR2.76 billion. Protection policy premiums, on the other hand, amounted to EUR16 million, with the cumulative marking EUR164 million.

On the Mid-Cap, Anima Holding reported Thursday that it achieved negative group net inflows of assets under management of EUR340 million in November.

At the end of November, the group's total assets under management stood at EUR186 billion. The stock lost 0.6 percent.

Juventus closed down 0.1 percent after it announced on Wednesday evening that - with reference to ongoing investigations by the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office following the displacement of criminal proceedings already pending at the Turin Judicial Authority - it had received a request for the acquisition of documents relating, in particular, to the financial statements as of June 30, 2022.

"In this context, the company has learned that investigations are pending at the Public Prosecutor's Office in Rome in relation to corporate officers," the corporate note reads.

Savlatore Ferragamo gave up 0.1 percent after Deutsche Bank Research downgraded the stock to 'sell' from 'hold' and cut its target price to EUR11.00 from EUR12.00.

Among small-cap companies, Newlat Food did well, up 5.1% at the end of the day.

Mondo TV lost 3.8 percent despite reporting on Wednesday that "Agent 203" was also sold in Switzerland and, thus, one of the flagship series in the company's line-up is now sold in more than 100 countries.

Mondo TV reached an agreement with RSI to license the series co-produced with Toon2Tango, Cosmos Maya, and V-House Animation and commissioned by Super RTL in Germany.

Bioera soared 19 percent after the appointment of Giuseppe Farchione as chairman and Giorgio Campeggio as CEO of the company. Their board memberships follow the resignations of Canio Giovanni Mazzaro and Domenico Torchia.

Among SMEs, Green Oleo did not trade. The company announced Thursday that it has expanded the range of its Halal-certified products. "This globally recognized certification attests to a sustainable product offering that is rigorous in respecting the diverse preferences and needs of consumers, consistent with their cultural and religious traditions," the company's statement read.

Casta Diva lost 2.1 percent. On Wednesday evening, the company reported that Value Track assessed the stock's target price at EUR2.15 per share, calculated using the peers method. The valuation made by the DCF method assigns a price per share at EUR3.10, in line with the highest values expressed by the stock since the IPO.

Iervolino & Lady Bacardi Entertainment closed down 0.9 percent after reporting on Wednesday that it had received notice from Intesa Sanpaolo of the confirmatory resolution to the request to amend the covenants of the 2020-2027 basket bond of original EUR8.0 million.

In detail, the new ratios are for a NFP/EBIT ratio of less than 0.50 for 2023, 0.45 for the following years; Ebit/interest greater than 1.5 for 2023, 2.5 for the following years; NFP/EBIT less than 6.5 for 2023, 3.5 for the following years.

The company is also continuing talks with UniCredit and CDP to similarly redefine covenants related to their 2021-2028 bond issue of original EUR10.0 million.

In New York, the Dow is up 0.1 percent to 36,100.76, the Nasdaq rises 1.1 percent to 14,300.20 and the S&P 500 gains 0.7 percent to 4,580.88.

Among currencies, the euro changes hands at USD1.0787 versus USD1.0785 recorded at Wednesday's European stock close while the pound is worth USD1.2576 from USD1.2586 last night.

Brent crude is worth USD74.76 per barrel versus USD74.46 per barrel at Wednesday's close. Gold, meanwhile, trades at USD2,028.42 an ounce from USD2,025.31 an ounce last night.

Friday's macroeconomic calendar includes Japan's Gross Domestic Product and Current Account at 0050 CET, French private employment data at 0730 CET, and Germany's inflation data at 0800 CET.

At 1100 CET, an ECOFIN meeting will be held while the highlight of the day will be the U.S. private sector employment report, due at 1430 CET.

This is followed at 1600 CET by the U.S. consumer confidence and data on U.S. drilling rigs from Baker Hughers at 1900 CET.

Among the companies in the Piazza Affari, no special events are scheduled.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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