(Alliance News) - European markets closed the day higher on Friday, while a bearish trend prevails in the U.S. on the final day of the week.

"Falling oil prices and global yields are pushing equity indexes higher for the third consecutive week," says Axel Rudolph, senior market analyst at online trading platform IG.

"The fourth consecutive week of falling oil prices -- by more than 12 percent -- and the rapid decline in global yields have provided an additional boost to risk appetite," the analyst adds. "European equity indexes posted further strong gains while the Eurozone posted its largest current account surplus in more than two years. Their U.S. counterparts fared less well as U.S. jobless claims rose on Thursday and Walmart's poor results indicated a possible cooling of the U.S. economy."

The FTSE Mib is up 0.8 percent to 29,498.43, Mid-Cap is up 0.9 percent to 41,727.90, Small-Cap is up 0.8 percent to 25,925.24, and Italy Growth gains 0.7 percent to 7,717.18.

London's FTSE 100 closed up 1.3 percent to 7,504.25, Paris' CAC 40 rose 0.9 percent to 7,234.81 and Frankfurt's DAX 40 gained 0.8 percent to 15,919.30.

On the main list in Piazza Affari, Banco BPM ended in the green by 0.5 percent after announcing on Friday a cash repurchase offer for all or part of its EUR300 million perpetual bond issue, with a coupon of 8.750 percent and a total outstanding nominal amount of EUR300 million.

In addition, the bank also announced the launch of a new issue of an Additional Tier 1 fixed-rate reset perpetual bond with a nominal amount of EUR300 million.

Assicurazioni Generali ends down 0.6 percent despite reporting a doubling of its profit for the first nine months to EUR2.82 billion from EUR1.46 billion in the same period last year.

In contrast, adjusted net income rose to EUR2.98 billion from EUR2.30 billion while adjusted earnings per share increased to EUR1.93 from EUR1.46.

The group confirmed a strong capital position, with the Solvency II ratio at 224 percent from 221 percent at the end of 2022. The increase mainly reflects the strong contribution from normalized capital generation, which, together with the overall positive impact from market variances, more than offset negative impacts from regulatory changes, noneconomic variances, and capital movements such as the dividend accrual for the period, net of the recent subordinated debt issue.

Leonardo -- up 1.9 percent -- reported that the offering price of the 18.0 million shares of DRS Inc. offered to the public in the U.S. is USD17.75.

The completion of the offering is scheduled for November 21 and is subject to customary closing conditions. Following completion of the offering, Leonardo is expected to hold about 73.3 percent of the issued and outstanding common shares of DRS or about 72.3 percent if the option to purchase additional shares from the underwriting banks is fully exercised.

Saipem and DiaSorin also did well, topping with 3.1% and 2.8% respectively.

On the mostly bullish Mid-Cap, Anima Holding closes du 1.1 percent after announcing Thursday that it has signed a binding agreement to acquire 100 percent of Kairos Partners SGR from parent Kairos Investment Management Spa.

The maximum consideration agreed for the sale "is equal to the capital surplus - currently estimated between EUR20 million and EUR25 million - with respect to the company's minimum supervisory requirements, subject to possible adjustment depending on the performance of assets under management following the signing of the agreement," Anima specified in a statement.

Digital Value does best of all and rises 4.6 percent followed by Tod's, in the green by 4.0 percent.

On the Small-Cap, Brioschi - up 1.3 percent - sold its entire 70 percent stake in Milanofiori Energia to Getec Italia.

The sale price for the 70% stake owned by Brioschi is approximately EUR3.2 million and was paid in full by the buyer.

Somec ends up 0.7 percent after reporting that its subsidiary Bluesteel won a new order in the UK worth about GBP9 million-about EUR10.5 million at today's exchange rate-regarding the redevelopment project of an iconic tower, a symbol of 1960s London.

Bluesteel, part of the Naval Architecture 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 most important 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.

Among SMEs, Innovatec--green by 4.1 percent--reported Friday that it closed the first nine months of the year with revenues down to EUR149.9 million versus EUR222.3 million in the same period of 2022. The decrease, the company explained, reflects the reduction of the 110% ecobonus business as a result of the regulatory and financial stop& go from the second half of 2022.

Ebitda amounted to EUR19.2 million from EUR27.0 million in the same period of 2022 and followed the dynamics recorded by revenues,

RES gives up 3.4 percent after announcing that it has obtained a EUR8 million loan from Banco BPM for the construction of the 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.

MeglioQuesto closes up 19 percent after reporting that it closed the first nine months with improved accounts, as value of production rose 33 percent year-on-year to EUR70.1 million from EUR52.8 million in the same period last year.

Still doing well was Datrix, which closed up 7.9 percent after finishing up 12 percent yesterday. 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 New York, the Dow is down 0.1 percent, the Nasdaq gives up 0.2 percent and the S&P 500 is just below par.

Among currencies, the euro changes hands at USD1.0881 versus USD1.0856 recorded at Thursday's European stock close while the pound is worth USD1.2422 from USD1.2416 last night.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD79.86 per barrel from USD78.21 per barrel at Thursday's close. Gold, meanwhile, trades at USD1,981.25 an ounce from USD1,990.20 an ounce last night.

Monday's macroeconomic calendar calls for the People's Bank of China's monetary policy decisions at 0215 CET.

At 0800 CET will come the German producer price index while in the UK comes data on labor productivity. At the same time, data on car registrations in Italy, Germany, France and the UK are expected.

In the afternoon, space is given to incoming macros from Canada, with inflation at 1430 CET and the new home price index.

At 1600 CET, home sales are expected from the US, and at 1700 CET Christine Lagarde is scheduled to speak.

Omer's results are expected on the Piazza Affari calendar.

By Chiara Bruschi, Alliance News reporter

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