European stock exchanges in green; euro at two-year low

(Alliance News) - On Friday, major European stock exchanges closed in positive territory, with Piazza Affari touching 33,500.

Overseas, good US PMI data drove the greenback against the euro, which touched a two-year low. Bitcoin, meanwhile, continues its run toward USD100,000.

"The combination of a weaker euro and pound helped gold prices reach new all-time highs in these currencies while the U.S. dollar recorded a fifth consecutive day of gains," is the comment of Axel Rudolph, senior technical analyst at IG.

According to the analyst, escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine have pushed investment into gold, driving it to new all-time highs in euros and pounds. In dollars, the precious metal posted a weekly gain of nearly 5.0 percent, the highest in eight months. Silver, while underperforming gold, closed up 1.5 percent. The same geopolitical tensions also contributed to a weekly gain of more than 5.0 percent in oil prices.

The FTSE Mib closed Friday in the green 0.6 percent to 33,494.83, the Mid-Cap rose 0.6 percent to 46,830.47, the Small-Cap gained 0.1 percent to 26,984.76, and Italy Growth lost 0.1 percent to 7,728.95.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 closed up 1.4 percent, Paris' CAC 40 rose 0.5 percent and Frankfurt's DAX 40 closed in the green by 0.8 percent.

On the macroeconomic front, the U.S. composite PMI rose to 55.3 points in November, marking the strongest U.S. private sector growth since 2022, according to data provided by S&P Global on Friday.

Also in the US, the services sector expanded significantly, with the PMI at 57.0 points, while manufacturing remained in contraction, with PMI at 48.8 points.

Back in Milan, on the highest-capitalization list of Piazza Affari, the queen company of Friday's session was Brunello Cucinelli, up 3.8 percent.

It is followed by DiaSorin, with purchases that pushed the stock up 3.02. Millennium International Management cut its short on the stock to 1.38 percent from 1.46 percent.

Recordati, Stellantis and Terna also did well, closing with gains between 2.9% and 2.8%.

Eni closes in the green by 0.7 percent. Ithaca Energy, an oil & gas company formed from the merger of Eni's U.K. and North Sea assets, announced an extraordinary dividend of USD200 million, or about GBP160 million, to be distributed on Dec. 20, Milano Finanza reported Friday. This is the first dividend after the business combination with Eni, which holds a 38.7 percent stake and will receive about USD193 million. In total, Ithaca will distribute about USD500 million in 2024.

Badly performing is the banking sector, which remains under pressure despite rumors of a possible 50-basis point cut by the ECB, aided by geopolitical concerns, a weak euro and weakening economic activity in the eurozone, as evidenced by this morning's PMIs.

Thus at the bottom of the main Italian list we find UniCredit, down 1.9 percent, and BPER Banca, Banco BPM, Banca Monte Paschi di Siena and Intesa Sanpaolo, with declines between 1.5 and 0.9 percent.

On the Mid-Cap, OVS closed up 3.8 percent after falling 7.3 percent on the eve.

Reply closed in fornto the list, down 3.0% at EUR150.30. Of note, on the stock Beremberg raised its target price to EUR160.00 from EUR144.00 per share.

Profit taking, following Thursday's session buying, for MFE-MediaForEurope, with class A shares closing down 1.6%, and class B shares down 0.6%.

On the Small-Cap, PLC did well, closing the last session of the week with a 19 percent flight. The company reported Thursday that subsidiary PLC Service has signed an agreement with Sonnedix Italia Operation Srl to manage O&M services on a photovoltaic plant located in the municipalities of Augusta and Melilli, Sicily, with a total rated capacity of more than 80 MWp.

Also doing well were Eurotech and AbitareIn with rises of 9.5 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively.

At the tail end of the list, doValue gave up 16 percent. The company announced Friday that it had completed the acquisition of 100 percent of Gardant, aiming to consolidate its leadership in the Italian and international markets.

The transaction, worth a total of EUR230.0 million, includes cash consideration of EUR181.0 million, the assumption of net financial debt, amounting to EUR50.4 million, and the issuance of new shares representing 20 percent of the combined entity.

Fidia continued its decline, down 7.2 percent, which touched a new all-time low during the session.

Among SMEs, Pharmacosmo ends 13% ahead, after three sessions of significant declines.

DHH--up 1.7 percent--reported Friday that it ended the nine months with revenues of ERU27.4 million compared to EUR25.6 million in the same period last year. Ebitda increased to EUR8.7 million from EUR7.3 million and pretax profit rose to EUR4.4 million from EUR2.7 million. Net income more than doubled to EUR3.0 million from EUR1.4 million a year earlier.

Renovalo, up 3.2 percent, on an update on tax receivable demobilization activity, announced Friday that it had signed the last assignment contract worth EUR2.8 million. As a result, all EUR76.7 million of tax receivables from invoice discounting on the balance sheet as of Dec. 31, 2023, have been demobilized.

Edil San Felice is doing well, up 1.6 percent, after it announced Friday that it has been awarded routine maintenance work on the Cassino Direction VI Section with a major contract from Autostrade per l'Italia worth EUR12.1 million.

Circle and H-Farm hurt, with declines of 12 percent and 8.0 percent, respectively.

In New York, the Dow Jones is gaining 0.5 percent, the Nasdaq is losing 0.2 percent and the S&P 500 is in fractional green.

Among currencies, the euro changes hands at USD1.0395 from USD1.0509 on Thursday in closing European equities. The pound is worth USD1.2509 versus USD1.2614 on Thursday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD74.90 per barrel from USD74.09 per barrel Thursday night. Gold trades at USD2,704.60 an ounce from USD2,671.60 an ounce on Thursday night.

Monday's macroeconomic calendar opens at 0900 CET, from Spain, with the producer price data.

At 1000 CET, from Germany, it is the turn of sentiment among German companies.

In the afternoon, French yield auctions are scheduled at 1500 CET, and from 1730 CET, US T-Note auctions.

Among the companies in the Italian stock market, Solutions Capital Management SIM will release its interim results.

By Antonio Di Giorgio, Alliance News reporter

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