Business Square lone in green; STM still on top

(Alliance News) - Halfway through Wednesday's session, Piazza Affari remains the only European stock exchange in positive territory, but selling folds the Mib to 38,600.

The major Old Continent indexes struggle, with Paris and Frankfurt posting the worst performances, while London remains below par.

Meanwhile, gold continues its rally, surpassing USD2,962.00 an ounce.

Thus, the FTSE Mib is up 0.2 percent to 38,614.61, the Mid-Cap is in the green 0.2 percent to 51,261.43, the Small-Cap is up 0.5 percent to 29,661.94 while Italy Growth is in the fractional red at 7,833.31.

London's FTSE 100 is in the red by 0.3 percent, Paris' CAC 40 gives up 0.6 percent while Frankfurt's DAX 40 falls 0.4 percent.

On the macroeconomic front, the current account surplus in the eurozone increased to EUR50.5 billion in December from EUR39.7 billion a year earlier, according to data released Wednesday by the European Central Bank.

The goods surplus rose to EUR35.6 billion from EUR30.7 billion, the services surplus increased to EUR12.5 billion from EUR6.7 billion and the primary income surplus rose to EUR19.4 billion from EUR16.9 billion.

Returning to Milan, on the highest-capitalization list in Piazza Affari, STMicroelectonics, ahead 5.3 percent, remains at the top of the turnaround after Jefferies upgraded the stock to 'buy' from 'hold' and raised its target price to EUR34.00 from EUR23.00 previously.

Purchases continue on Telecom Italia, in the green by 1.1% with more than 330 million shares changing hands. Poste Italiane - in the red by 0.1 percent - acquired 9.8 percent of the telephone company and, according to reports in Repubblica on Wednesday, has already begun talks with Vivendi to discuss joining TIM's board of directors.

Leonardo -- up 1.7 percent -- announced Tuesday that it had signed an "important collaboration agreement" with EDGE Group, "among the world's leading groups in the advanced technology and defense sector," the statement said.

The agreement serves to "further strengthen collaboration in the development of solutions in six domains considered to be critically important. Both groups aim to consolidate existing synergies and exploit new complementary opportunities for closer collaboration," Leonardo points out.

BPER Banca - in the green by 0.9 percent - announced Monday that it had finalized with Unicalce - a few weeks ago - a EUR20 million unsecured loan with a 6-year SACE Green Guarantee.

UniCredit - down 0.1 percent - announced on Tuesday that it had placed a EUR1 billion issue of Additional Tier 1 instruments aimed at institutional investors.

This Additional Tier 1, part of UniCredit's MREL funding plan aimed at institutional investors for 2025, helps strengthen the Tier 1 ratio by about 35 basis points.

Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, down 0.4 percent. It is reported that Capital Fund Management has limited its short position on the stock to 1.00% from 0.99% previously.

Among the bearish, Buzzi and Brunello Cucinelli extend their opening losses, down 2.4% and 1.9%, respectively.

Remaining at the bottom of the main list is Recordati, down 6.1%, with more than 900,000 changed hands. Rossini announced on Wednesday that it had completed the sale of about 10.5 million shares in Recordati, or 5.0% of its share capital, through an accelerated bookbuilding procedure.

On the Mid-Cap, Juventus Football Club and GVS lead the rises, ahead 3.8% and 7.0%, respectively.

Technoprobe continues well, advancing 3.3%.

Fincantieri rises 2.4% at the turnaround. Analysts at Intesa Sanpaolo raised the stock's target price to EUR10.20 from EUR5.60 previously, upgrading the rating to 'buy' from 'hold,' reassessing the company's potential in the cruise and shipping sectors.

As Intesa explains in its report, the cruise ship market, hit hard by the pandemic, is recovering and accelerating, both in terms of volumes and prices. Such a scenario makes itself favorable for Fincantieri.

At the bottom of the cadet list is Caltagirone, in the red by 1.6 percent.

On the Small-Cap, at the top is Industrie De Nora, in the green by 11 percent. The company announced Tuesday its preliminary consolidated results for fiscal year 2024, which closed with revenues of EUR862.6 million, up 0.7 percent from EUR856.4 million in 2023, and up 2.6 percent at constant exchange rates.

Unidata - up 2.6 percent - reported Wednesday that Unitirreno - a joint venture with the ESG Growth Infrastructure Fund managed by Azimut Libera Impresa SGR - has obtained a EUR57 million loan from Intesa Sanpaolo and Banco BPM.

Somec's stock is still suspended after a theoretical rise in the opening of 10 percent, the stock had fallen back to a 1.6 percent red.

On the other side of the list Netweek, Bastogi and Brioschi, achieve the largest declines, in the red between 6.2 percent and 7.1 percent.

Among SMEs, leading the mid-session rises were Edgelab, up 7.7 percent, and ISCC Fintech, in the green by 5.9 percent.

Also doing well were Destination Italia and VNE, up 5.0 percent and dek 5.6 percent, respectively.

Ecomembrane - up 1.8% - reported Tuesday that its subsidiary SBS Solar has received an order from an Italian sector operator for the design and supply of solar-mono-axial trackers in the amount of EUR840,000, aimed at the construction of a photovoltaic plant of about 8 MWp in the province of Cremona.

Italian Wine Brands - in the green by 0.9 percent - reported that its subsidiary Svinando, Italy's leading international platform for online sales of food and wine products, has launched Nando, the first artificial intelligence-based virtual assistant developed in-house to offer a navigation and consulting experience tailored to the needs of its customers.

Estrima's stock is suspended after a theoretical drop of 12 percent. The company approved the binding proposal received from Zetronic, a mechatronics company operating specifically in the industrial supply segment for the automotive market, with exclusivity reserved in favor of Zetronic until March 31, 2025.

Also suspended, after widening its opening losses, was GT Talent Group's stock, in a theoretical 16 percent red. The company announced Tuesday that it has approved an update to its business plan to 2027, confirming actual cash requirements for 2025 at EUR1.5 million.

Debutant Com.Tel rises 21 percent, with just over 43,000 traded. The listing on Euronext Growth Milan is "a crowning achievement of a multi-year journey, the result of constant efforts to achieve the objectives we had set for ourselves," the company explains.

The company debuted with a free float of 10.98 percent: 2.0 million shares intended for the market of the total 18.4 million.

In New York on Tuesday evening, the Dow closed in fractional green at 44,556.34, the Nasdaq finished in fractional green at 20,041.26, and the S&P 500 advanced 0.2 percent to 6,129.58.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed in fractional green at 38,801.17, the Shanghai Composite finished up 0.6 percent 3,323.17 while the Hang Seng fell 0.1 percent to 22,944.24.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0420 against USD1.0461 at Tuesday's European equities close. In contrast, the pound is worth USD1.2586 from USD1.2614 on Tuesday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD76.23 per barrel from USD75.64 per barrel at Tuesday's European stock close. Gold trades at USD2,963.11 an ounce from USD2,929.11 an ounce Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday's economic calendar from the U.S., a mortgage market report will be available at 1300 CET, FOMC minutes are due at 2000 CET, weekly oil stocks are due at 2230 CET, and a Fed speech by Jefferson will close the day at 2300 CET.

By Antonio Di Giorgio, Alliance News reporter

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