(Alliance News) - Tuesday morning, major European indexes head for a cautious opening according to IG futures as investors continue to monitor movements in global bond yields and geopolitical developments in the Middle East.

In the coming hours, markets will also assess preliminary PMI data across Europe to gauge the performance of the manufacturing and services sectors.

The FTSE Mib is expected to be in the red by 50.0 points or 0.1 percent after closing Monday up 0.7 percent to 27,558.78.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 is expected to open in the red by 7.7 points or 0.1 percent, Paris' CAC 40 is expected near parity in fractional green, as is Frankfurt's DAX 40.

Of note, GfK Group reported Tuesday morning that the GfK indicator of German consumer sentiment is set to fall for the third consecutive month to minus 28.1 in November, the lowest reading in seven months, compared with forecasts of minus 26.6.

Among Italy's smaller lists, the Mid-Cap rose 0.1 percent to 38,208.34 on Monday evening, the Small-Cap lost 0.9 percent to 24,311.44, and Italy Growth gave up 0.4 percent to 7,755.45.

On the main list of Piazza Affari, UniCredit -- up 2.6 percent -- and Alpha Services and Holdings announced Monday that they had signed a binding term-sheet for the creation of a strategic partnership in Romania and Greece.

In Romania, the parties agreed on key economic terms to proceed with the merger of UniCredit Romania with Alpha Bank Romania, which will create the third largest bank by total assets in the local market, with an overall market share of 12 percent by total assets.

In Greece, meanwhile, the companies agreed on the creation of a contractual framework for the implementation of a business partnership to distribute UniCredit's asset management and unit-linked products to Alpha Bank's 3.5 million customers and the creation of a joint venture in insurance and pension investment products with UniCredit becoming a 51 percent shareholder in AlphaLife.

The podium, along with UniCredit, is for Stellantis and BPER Bank, which are up 2.1 percent and 4.2 percent, respectively.

Eni -- up 0.3 percent -- announced Monday that it has signed a long-term contract with QatarEnergy LNG NFE, the joint venture between Eni and QatarEnergy to develop the North Field East project in Qatar, for the supply of up to 1.5 billion cubic meters per year of LNG.

The available volumes will be delivered to the "FSRU Italia" regasification terminal currently located in Piombino, with deliveries scheduled to start in 2026 for a duration of 27 years.

Telecom Italia remained in the bearish area, giving up 2.6 percent. The company announced Sunday that the board of directors will meet on Nov. 3 "to examine the binding offer on NetCo and the offer, of a non-binding nature, regarding Sparkle, received from KKR last Oct. 16, as well as to examine the question of which corporate body is competent to decide on the matter."

An informal board meeting will be held on November 4 to continue questioning management and consultants, the company points out, and the board "will meet again formally on November 5 to deliberate."

On the cadet segment, Maire Tecnimont--up 2.2 percent--reported Monday that it has been awarded new contracts worth a total of about USD60 million in its Sustainable Technology Solutions business unit.

Specifically, the company specified in a note, STS was awarded licensing and equipment supply contracts for an "Ultra Low Energy" urea plant in China for client Shandong Lianmeng Chemical Company.

Banca Ifis - in the red by 1.6 percent - announced last week that the board appointed Antonella Malinconico as the new preisdnete of the Audit and Risk Committee.

Beatrice Colleoni, on the other hand, will lead the Remuneration committee while Roberta Gobbi will replace the resigning Monica Regazzi as a member of the Appointments committee, of which she will also be chair.

The board of directors of Alerion Clean Power -- in a tie at the end of the meeting -- approved the signing of two preliminary contracts for the purchase of 100 percent of the share capital of two companies that own two licensed wind power projects. The seller is Fri-el, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fri-el Green Power. The planned investment the construction of the wind power plants will amount to about EUR100 million and both plants are expected to start operation by the first half of 2025.

Alerion's board of directors also approved the purchase of 100 percent of the share capital of Fri-el Solar Srl, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fri-el Spa, which holds a portfolio of photovoltaic development projects in Italy.

Brunello Cucinelli rose 1.3 percent, again benefiting from the bullish wake caused by good results. The company reported last week that revenues for the first nine months rose 28 percent year-on-year to EUR818.4 million from EUR642.0 million in the same period last year. In Italy, revenues increased to EUR97.2 million from EUR78.0 million, in Europe -- excluding Italy -- they rose to EUR217.9 million from EUR184.2 million, in the Americas they improved to EUR284.7 million from EUR233.9 million, and in Asia they increased to EUR218.6 million from EUR146.0 million.

Salvatore Ferragamo closed down, 0.4 percent to EUR11.65 per share. The luxury company reported that its revenues were down 8.3 percent year-on-year for the nine months, to EUR844 million, due in part to a decline in both the Retail and Wholesale channels, with sales down 10 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

On a geographic basis, in Asia-Pacific, sales fell 16 percent, EMEA saw a 3.1 percent increase in sales, North America saw sales fall 20 percent, and Central and South America saw a 3.1 percent drop in sales.

On the Small-Cap, Bastogi was up 3.1 percent, with just over 10,500 shares changing hands, a significantly lower trading volume than the average for its parent list.

Esprinet - in the red by 0.5 percent - announced that it will distribute Garanteasy in Italy, a cloud service built around consumer needs that makes it easy to manage any type of warranty on consumer goods by connecting all the players in the warranty ecosystem: stores, e-commerce, manufacturers, insurance companies, service centers and payment systems.

Among SMEs, Growens - up 1.2 percent - announced Monday that it had finalized the transaction to sell 100 percent of the share capital of its Dutch subsidiary Datatrics to Squeezely, a Spotler Group company, a leading marketing automation player in the Netherlands and UK.

The final price paid by the buyer for the purchase and sale of Datatrics' assets was EUR1.6 million.

ALA closed at a breakeven after announcing Monday the purchase of an additional 40 percent of ALA Germany GmbH, a Hamburg-based company, thus coming to hold 100 percent of its share capital. The 40 percent was taken over for a price of EUR450,000, paid to the seller from the IPO proceeds. The total investment for the 100% stake in ALA Germany is EUR750,000.

Emma Villas -- up 21 percent -- reported Monday that it had achieved a record summer season. As of Oct. 17, according to management data collected by the Emma Villas Observatory, there were 5,930 bookings in Italy, surpassing by 4.2 percent the total bookings recorded in all of 2022, "a figure destined to improve further in view of the December holidays, where end-of-year bookings are traditionally concentrated," the company's note said.

Clabo gave up 1.6 percent after reporting Friday that net sales for the first nine months of the year rose 22 percent year-on-year to EUR47.8 million from EUR39.3 million in the same period a year earlier.

Revenues rose 8.6 percent to EUR48.7 million from EUR44.9 million, and Ebitda showed a 40 percent increase to EUR6.9 million from EUR4.9 million, with margin of 14.1 percent from 10.9 percent a year earlier.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed in the green 0.3 percent to 31,099.50, the Hang Seng gave up 0.8 percent to 17,008.00 and the Shanghai Composite was up 0.6 percent to 2,963.91.

In New York, on European night, the Dow closed down 0.6 percent to 32,936.41, the Nasdaq up 0.3 percent to 13,018.33 and the S&P 500 finished 0.2 percent in the red at 4,217.04.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0682 against USD1.0621 recorded at Monday's European stock close while the pound was worth USD1.2274 from USD1.2207 last night.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD90.10 per barrel from USD91.57 per barrel at Monday's close. Gold, meanwhile, trades at USD1,977.17 an ounce from USD1,976.37 an ounce on Monday evening.

Tuesday's macroeconomic calendar features preliminary PMIs from France, Germany, Eurozone, UK and the US later in the day, plus data on US crude oil inventories at 2230 CEST.

Among the companies in Piazza Affari, Cofle, Italgas, Next Re and Talea Group will release accounts tomorrow.

By Chiara Bruschi, Alliance News reporter

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