(Alliance News) - On Thursday, major European indices continue to trade in negative territory, with Piazza Affari slipping below the 43,800 mark and Frankfurt posting the steepest decline among Old Continent stock exchanges.

In commodities, Brent crude continues its ascent, trading around USD115 per barrel, while spot gold remains below USD4,700 per ounce.

Dutch TTF prices are up sharply, moving near EUR66 per megawatt-hour. European natural gas futures surged by approximately 20%, reaching their highest levels in three years, after Iran launched attacks on key energy infrastructure across the Middle East, intensifying supply concerns.

On the macroeconomic front, Eurostat reported on Thursday that construction output fell by 1.9% year-on-year in January, compared to a 0.7% increase in December, according to preliminary estimates. In the EU, production dropped by 2.0% in January, following a 1.3% rise in December.

Consequently, the FTSE MIB is down 2.1% at 43,801.56, the Mid-Cap is in the red by 2.6% at 52,177.01, the Small-Cap is down 1.7% at 32,221.81, while Italy Growth retreats by 0.6% to 8,319.94.

London's FTSE 100 is down 1.9%, the CAC 40 in Paris sheds 1.7%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt is down 2.2%.

Returning to Milan, selling pressure continues to dominate the main list of Piazza Affari, with only two stocks in positive territory.

Eni leads the basket, gaining 1.7% to EUR23.465 per share, with over 2 million shares already traded. Goldman Sachs raised its target price on the stock to EUR24.00 from EUR23.00, confirming its buy recommendation.

Selling hit Leonardo, which shed 1.3%. The group announced on Wednesday the closing of the acquisition of Iveco Group's Defense business - up 0.3% - including the IDV and ASTRA brands - for a total price of EUR1.6 billion, in line with the Enterprise Value set at EUR1.7 billion.

In the US, slowing demand for electric vehicles is prompting Samsung SDI to review its joint venture with Stellantis, shifting focus away from car batteries toward energy storage systems, as reported by Milano Finanza on Thursday.

CEO Choi Joo-sun explained that part of the StarPlus Energy lines has already been converted to storage: at the Indiana site, three out of four lines are dedicated to ESS, while the project for a second plant remains suspended. Stellantis is down 2.8%.

Telecom Italia - down 2.6% - announced on Thursday that it has signed a non-binding agreement with Fastweb + Vodafone for the construction and management of new mobile phone towers in Italy, with the prospect of creating up to 6,000 new sites. The joint initiative also aims to accelerate the national 5G roll-out.

DiaSorin - in the red by 0.5% - announced on Thursday the signing of a strategic distribution agreement with McKesson Medical Surgical to accelerate and support the commercialization of the Liaison Nes Point of Care molecular solution at physician offices, urgent care centers, and other decentralized diagnostic settings in the US.

Following Fitch and Moody's, S&P also lowered Mediobanca's rating in the new phase under Montepaschi's control, moving it from BBB+ to BBB with a positive outlook.

Mediobanca is down 2.3% while MPS retreats by 2.1%.

UniCredit, which is down 3.6%, announced on Thursday that, together with ING, it has structured a EUR375 million mini-perm project financing for Retelit Datacenter. This concerns Retelit's data center hub, which represents Italy's leading interconnection platform with 38 data centers, including the Avalon Campus in Milan.

As the company explained in a note, the loan is intended to support Retelit's growth plan, aimed at expanding its current 18 MW capacity through the construction of 3 new data centers in Milan and Rome, for a total additional capacity of 27 MW.

Among other decliners, Buzzi sheds 1.9% to EUR42.56 per share. JPMorgan upgraded the stock to "overweight" from "neutral" with a target price of EUR58.00.

At the bottom of the main list, Inwit is trading down 20%.

On the Mid-Cap, among the few gainers are BFF Bank and Philogen, up 3.7% and 1.8%, respectively.

KKCG Maritime is contesting the negative opinion on the partial tender offer for Ferretti, arguing that the recommendations of the board and the Independent Board Committee were influenced by non-independent directors appointed by Fih, linked to Weichai. Ferretti is down 1.8%.

Technoprobe - down 12% - announced that the board approved the consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2025, closing with a consolidated net profit of EUR98.8 million, a 58% increase compared to EUR62.8 million in 2024.

The board proposed to allocate the entire profit of the parent company, amounting to EUR49.5 million, to the "retained earnings" reserve, without dividend distribution, in order to support the growth strategy.

d'Amico International Shipping announced on Thursday that d'Amico International has completed the sale of 6.2 million shares of d'Amico International Shipping, equal to approximately 5% of the share capital, at a price of EUR6.50 per share, for a total value of EUR40.3 million. d'Amico stock is down over 14%.

On the Small-Cap, among the stocks with the highest trading volumes, Gas Plus leads, advancing 4.0% at the opening.

On the other side of the list, Industrie de Nora sheds 6.2%. The company announced on Wednesday that it closed 2025 with an adjusted net profit of EUR89.5 million, up from EUR88.8 million in 2024. Including non-recurring charges and income, net profit was EUR82.7 million compared to EUR83.3 million in 2024. The dividend moves to EUR0.103 from EUR0.104 the previous year.

Banca Profilo - flat at EUR0.158 - announced that it has received the final decision from the Bank of Italy regarding the capital requirement to be met at the consolidated level, following the results of the Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process.

doValue - down 0.2% - announced on Wednesday that it closed 2025 with an adjusted net profit of EUR25.3 million, more than tripling from EUR6.7 million in 2024, supported by operational growth. The board of directors proposed the distribution of a dividend of EUR0.0923 per share.

Among SMEs, Circle - in the red by 1.2% - announced on Thursday that its subsidiary eXyond has presented a digitalization and automation project for the gates of an intermodal hub in Northern Italy worth over EUR300,000.

Pattern, which marks a 1.8% gain, announced on Wednesday that it closed 2025 with a loss of EUR2.3 million, compared to a profit of EUR400,000 in 2024.

Among the stocks at the tail end of the alternative list, Casta Diva Group sheds 3.7%, breaking a three-session winning streak.

IG futures show the Dow Jones in the red by 0.1% or down 41.1 points.

On the currency front, the euro changes hands at USD1.1466 from USD1.1515 on Wednesday evening, while the pound trades at USD1.3275 from USD1.3331 yesterday evening.

Among commodities, Brent trades at USD114.88 per barrel from USD108.44 per barrel yesterday, while gold is worth USD4,683.54 per ounce from USD4,875.55 per ounce yesterday evening.

On Thursday's economic calendar, at 1300 CET, the interest rate decision will be announced from the UK, followed at 1415 CET by the Eurozone decision.

At 1300 CET, US housing starts data is expected, and at 1330 CET, it is the turn of jobless claims.

At 1500 CET, also in the US, data on new home sales and trade sales will arrive.

By Antonio Di Giorgio, Alliance News reporter

Comments and questions to redazione@alliancenews.com

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