(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari lived up to futures forecasts and opened flat in Thursday's trading session, with no particular macro data to headline a sparse calendar of events.

The FTSE Mib opened Thursday slightly higher at 29,476.62, the Mid-Cap loses little to 41,818.20, the Small-Cap gives up 0.1 percent to 25,931.17, and Italy Growth rises 0.1 percent to 7,663.31.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 opened down 0.1 percent at 7,478.30, Paris' CAC 40 falls 0.2 percent to 7,197.13 and Frankfurt's DAX 40 rises 0.4 percent to 15,816.97.

Leading the bullish sentiment on the main list in Piazza Affari is Leonardo, up 1.4 percent, after a few hours ago it announced the launch of a secondary public offering in the U.S. to sell 16.5 million shares of its subsidiary DRS common stock, 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, Moncler did worse than all at the opening, losing 1.4 percent shortly after the bell rang, with trading volumes average for this early part of the session.

ERG continues to gain ground and, after Wednesday's positive close, opens today up 0.9 percent. The company reported that it closed the first nine months of the year with a group profit of EUR112 million, down from EUR459 million in the same period of 2022. Company guidance is still positive, however, while adjusted net debt for "continuing operations" was EUR1.41 billion, down from EUR1.52 billion since June 30.

Enel rises 0.4 percent and Eni loses 0.1 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. is on a par after announcing on Wednesday that it had signed a EUR200 million revolving credit line with a pool of banks with a four-year term, with an option to extend for an additional year at the company's discretion.

Rai Way's board of directors -- up 0.2 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 0.4 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--up 0.6 percent--reported that it closed the nine months with a pro forma consolidated profit of EUR73.6 million from EUR119.4 million and shareholders' 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 better than all at the start, accomplishing a 26 percent rise, but the stock is suspended for excess volatility shortly after the start of trading.

Caleffi - up 5.2 percent - on Wednesday reported that in the first nine months consolidated revenues stood at around EUR40.7 million, up 2.0 percent from September 30, 2022 , when they were EUR39.9 million.

Digital Bros -- up 0.2% -- rises after announcing a reorganization plan, which will affect development studios more but also, to a lesser extent, publishing activities.

The reorganization plan calls for a reduction of about 30 percent in the global workforce, concentrated more in development studios.

Triboo drops 0.3 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 sainging 27 percent at the open today, with the stock currently suspended for too much volatility.

FOS - down 1.7 percent - announced its investment, for EUR1.8 million, in the research and development project "TITCO - Technologies for the Detection, Traceability and Measurability of Contaminants in Olive Oils," with the aim of applying innovative product and process technology solutions to the olive oil supply chain.

The project is led by the FOS group through the company T&G, which specializes in Information and Communication Technology.

Energy gains 0.8 percent. The company has received from Invitalia the notice of grant of facilities for the application for the Development Contract of the strategic production chain "Renewables and Batteries" under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

The award provides for 16 percent co-funding - amounting to about EUR7.2 million, non-repayable, disbursed in SAL starting in 2024 and ending in 2026 - out of a total amount of about EUR43 million for the purpose of building the giga-factory for the production of batteries for storage systems for renewables at Energy's headquarters in Veneto.

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 was down 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 USD1.0844 against USD1.0853 recorded at Wednesday's European stock close while the pound was worth USD1.2383 from USD1.2435 last night.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD80.66 per barrel from USD81.62 per barrel at Tuesday's close. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,967.11 an ounce from USD1,960.48 an ounce last night.

Thursday's macroeconomic calendar includes, at 1000 CET, the publication of the Italian trade balance while, at 1230 CET, a speech by Christine Lagarde is scheduled.

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.

Among the companies listed in Piazza Affari, the results of Assicurazioni Generali, H-Farm and MeglioQuesto are expected.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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