Listings in the red; down on luxury and oils

(Alliance News) - On Thursday, major European stock markets closed in negative territory, with Frankfurt the only exception to the European declines, while London did worse than all.

"The rebound in stocks has slowed dramatically, although the reasons to buy keep coming. First there was CPI, then retail sales and PPI, and now comes a new drop in oil prices and yields, the two main bogeymen for stocks in recent months. Claims for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level since mid-August, another sign of cooling in the U.S. economy and another brick in the wall of expectations that the Fed is now on pause for the foreseeable future," commented Chris Beauchamp, Chief Market Analyst at IG.

"A series of hefty dividend stocks have put the FTSE 100 on edge since the start of the day, but sentiment on the index continues to deteriorate after this morning's Burberry numbers. The downturn in luxury spending is not exactly applicable to most stocks in the index, but it is an indicator."

Thus, the FTSE Mib closes down 0.7 percent to 29,258.10, the Mid-Cap gives up 1.1 percent to 41,375.17, the Small-Cap declines 0.8 percent to 25,730.48, and Italy Growth ends up 0.1 percent to 7,662.81.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 closes down 1.0 percent, Paris' CAC 40 ends down 0.5 percent and Frankfurt's DAX 40 rises 0.2 percent.

On the main list in Piazza Affari, down goes Moncler, down 2.6%. Doing worse are oil stocks, with Saipem sitting at the bottom and giving up 4.4% and Tenaris ahead with a 4.0% drop.

On the other side of the list go energy stocks, however, with A2A doing best of all and rising 2.6 percent. Also on the podium are ERG and Hera, both in the green by 1.4 percent.

Still doing well is Leonardo, up 0.2%, after announcing the launch of a secondary public offering in the U.S. to sell 16.5 million ordinary shares in its subsidiary DRS, representing 6.3% 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 Mid-Cap, luxury trades give ground as seen on the Mib, with Salvatore Ferragamo losing 2.7 percent, Tod's giving up 0.9 percent, and Brunello Cucinelli leaving 3.1 percent on the parterre.

Piaggio & C. gives up 1.0% the day after announcing that it has signed a EUR200 million revolving credit facility with a pool of banks with a 4-year term, with an option to extend for an additional year at the company's discretion.

Fincantieri closes unchanged at EUR0.53 per share. 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.

On the Small-Cap, Safilo Group gives up 5.1% continuing the downtrend in fashion.

Brioschi - in the green by 3.6 percent - announced Thursday that it has sold its entire 70 percent stake in Milanofiori Energia Spa to Getec Italia Spa.

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

Somec rises 2.9 percent after announcing earlier that its subsidiary Bluesteel Srl has won a new contract in the UK worth about GBP9 million-about EUR10.5 million at today's exchange rate-relating to the redevelopment project of an iconic tower, a symbol of 1960s London.

Bluesteel, part of the Naval Architectural 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 leading 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, RES did not trade after announcing that it has obtained EUR8 million in financing 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.

Good Datrix, up 12 percent. The SME has 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 0.4 percent to 34,844.03, as is the Nasdaq at 14,046.18 and the S&P 500 is in the red 0.3 percent to 4,489.76.

Among currencies, the euro changes hands at USD1.0856 versus USD1.0853 recorded at Wednesday's European stock close while the pound is worth USD1.2416 from USD1.2435 last night.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD78.21 per barrel from USD81.62 per barrel at Tuesday's close. Gold, meanwhile, trades at USD1,990.20 an ounce from USD1,960.48 an ounce last night.

Friday's macroeconomic calendar features, at 0800 CET, headline retail sales from the United Kingdom. Half an hour later is the turn of Swiss industrial production.

At 0930 CET a speech by ECB President Christine Lagarde is scheduled. At 1000 CET comes the Spanish trade balance.

At the same time, Eurozone current account and current account data are published. At 1100 CET it is the turn of the general consumer price index for the Eurozone.

In the afternoon, from the US, at 1430 CET, data on building permits, new residential construction and building permits are expected.

Among the companies listed in Piazza Affari, results from Circle, Innovatec and Health Italia are expected.

By Claudia Cavaliere, Alliance News reporter

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