European Markets Open Higher; STM and UniCredit Lead Gains

(Alliance News) - On Monday, at the start of trading, major European stock markets moved into positive territory, extending Friday's gains. Milan's Piazza Affari hovered around 46,400 points, standing out as the best performer in the Old Continent in early trading.

This week, market focus remains on key employment and inflation data from the US, in addition to the upcoming earnings season expected on European exchanges.

Thus, the FTSE Mib is up 1.1% at 46,363.08, the Mid-Cap rises 0.2% to 60,486.76, the Small-Cap climbs 0.6% to 36,828.45, while Italy Growth advances 0.3% to 8,716.94.

London's FTSE 100 is up 0.3%, Paris's CAC 40 gains 0.1%, while Frankfurt's DAX 40 rises 0.6%.

Back in Milan, on the blue-chip index of Piazza Affari, STMicroelectronics jumped to the top in early trading, advancing 5.5% with over 2.2 million shares already exchanged.

The company announced Monday the expansion of its strategic partnership with Amazon Web Services through a multi-year, multi-billion dollar commercial agreement covering numerous product categories. The deal encompasses a wide range of solutions and leverages the company's proprietary technology portfolio.

STM also issued warrants to AWS for the purchase of up to 24.8 million shares of the group. AWS may exercise these rights in one or more transactions over seven years at an initial price of USD28.38.

UniCredit is also seeing strong buying, up 5.0% with over 3 million shares changing hands.

The Piazza Gae Aulenti-based bank closed 2025 with solid results and a new record in profitability, confirming the resilience of its business model amid falling rates and more volatile markets. As announced by the bank on Monday, before European markets opened, group net profit rose to EUR10.58 billion, up 14% from EUR9.31 billion in 2024, while statutory net profit reached EUR10.92 billion, a 12% year-on-year increase.

Total revenues for 2025 stood at EUR24.54 billion, down 1.3% from EUR24.87 billion in 2024, mainly due to a 4.3% drop in net interest income to EUR13.73 billion as a result of rate normalization. Partially offsetting the decline was growth in fees and net insurance management income, which rose 5.6% to EUR8.69 billion.

Leonardo and Fincantieri also showed strength, each gaining 2.5%.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, up 1.1%, is accelerating work on its new industrial plan, expected Thursday, February 26. The board is set to review and approve the strategy presented by CEO Luigi Lovaglio, developed with support from McKinsey.

Details remain confidential, but the board is increasingly open to the delisting of Mediobanca, down 0.5%, to be merged into MPS with the spin-off of private banking and CIB activities, in line with guidance from the European Central Bank and commitments made in the OPAS prospectus.

Prysmian is also strong, advancing 1.0% to EUR104.00, after gaining 3.6% on Friday evening. Deutsche Bank Research raised its target price to EUR100.00 from EUR97.00, upgrading its recommendation to 'hold' from 'buy'.

Automotive Cells Company has decided to cancel the gigafactory projects in Termoli and Kaiserslautern, both halted since 2024, starting talks with unions in Italy and Germany. According to Milano Finanza, ACC explained the decision was due to changed market conditions that make the planned investments unsustainable.

Stellantis, up 0.4% after dropping 25% on Friday, acknowledged the cancellation and pledged job protections. For Termoli, the arrival of the e-DCT line by 2026 and investments in GSE Euro 7 engines are confirmed, with a commitment to ensure continued employment for ACC staff within the group.

Terna saw a slight pullback, down 0.6%. On Friday, the company closed at EUR9.478 per share, up 1.4% from the previous day, marking its highest value since listing in June 2004.

Among the decliners, Brunello Cucinelli fell 1.0%, as did Enel.

Ferrari opened at the bottom of the main index, down 1.1% to EUR278.10, marking its third consecutive negative session.

On the Mid-Cap, Moltiply Group led gains with a 5.8% rise, returning to positive territory over the past thirty days.

Avio was the most traded stock by value at the open, rising 2.6%.

Banca Generali also attracted buying, up 1.1%, as did Webuild, which advanced 0.8%.

At the bottom of the mid-cap index were BFF Bank and Safilo Group, both down 1.7%.

On the Small-Cap index, Aeffe was the best performer at the open, up 4.4%. On Friday, the company announced that, as part of the negotiated crisis resolution procedure for itself and its subsidiary Pollinia, the extension of protective measures confirmed in November and precautionary measures granted in December had been ordered.

On the opposite side, Zest fell 6.1% after two consecutive positive sessions.

Banca Sistema traded flat at EUR1.668. On Friday, the bank reported results as of December 31, 2025, closing with net profit of EUR42.3 million, up 68% from EUR25.2 million at the end of 2024.

This figure also benefited from the collection of EUR103 million from a municipality involved in a European Court of Human Rights ruling, which enabled the booking of EUR40.9 million in late payment interest.

Among SMEs, Xenia Hotellerie Solution gained 9.2% in early trading.

Doxee also approached double digits, rising 9.1% after three consecutive losing sessions.

Among the most traded stocks by value, both Franchetti and ICOP advanced 2.6%.

Execus, up 3.3%, announced it had received around EUR2.7 million in incentives from the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy to support the research and development project "GLOPS – Green Low-footprint Optimized Platform for Petrol Stations," aimed at creating a low environmental impact technology platform to optimize processes and services at fuel stations and support the sector's digital and sustainable transition.

On the opposite end, among the worst performers on the alternative index, CleanBnB fell 3.8%.

In Asia, the Nikkei rose 3.9% to 56,363.94, the Shanghai Composite climbed 1.8% to 4,123.09, and the Hang Seng gained 1.8% to 27,026.16.

In New York, the Dow closed Friday up 2.5% at 50,115.67, the Nasdaq gained 2.2% to 23,031.21, and the S&P 500 rose 2.0% to 6,932.30.

On the currency front, the euro traded at USD1.1860 from USD1.1812 at Friday's European equity close, while the pound traded at USD1.3594 from USD1.3608.

Among commodities, Brent traded at USD67.35 a barrel from USD68.53 Friday evening, while gold was worth USD5,029.74 an ounce from USD4,961.86 an ounce.

Monday's calendar includes, at 1030 CET, the Eurozone and Germany investor confidence index from Sentix.

On the bond front, at 1500 CET, French BTF auctions with 3, 6, and 12-month maturities are expected, while at 1730 CET, it is the turn of the US Treasury bill auctions with 3 and 6-month maturities.

Among companies listed on Piazza Affari, results are expected from Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Banca Profilo, EdiliziAcrobatica, Mediobanca, and Nusco.

By Antonio Di Giorgio, Alliance News reporter

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