(Alliance News) - Major European stock exchanges close Monday's session higher -- with Piazza Affari surpassing 34,300 points -- buoyed by new record highs on Wall Street.

"On Friday, the Dow and S&P 500 touched new highs and reached new big numbers, but the gains continued today," commented Chris Beauchamp - IG's Chief Market Analyst. The Republican victory continues to spur investors, and with earnings growth still good, investors are looking forward to a new wave of mergers and acquisitions and IPOs that will provide new flows to U.S. markets. Trump's train keeps running."

The FTSE Mib closed Monday up 1.6 percent to 34,343.83, the Mid-Cap advanced 1.0 percent to 47,321.52, the Small-Cap gained 0.5 percent to 27,907.97, and Italy Growth gave up 0.3 percent to 7,796.98.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 closed up 0.7 percent, Paris' CAC 40 gained 1.2 percent and Frankfurt's DAX 40 advanced 1.3 percent.

On the highest-capitalization list in Piazza Affari, Leonardo ended the session up 4.3 percent in the wake of good accounts. In addition to the results, the positive sentiment was influenced by news of the British government giving the green light to the Global Combat Air Program.

Azimut also had a good session, up 4.1 percent, also buoyed by the good accounts released last week, while BPER Banca closed up 2.7 percent. The institution announced Monday that a buyback program was launched today in favor of group staff for 17.4 million shares and a maximum of EUR53 million.

Tenaris - up 1.8 percent - announced that under the USD700 million share buyback program announced on Nov. 6, it has entered into a non-discretionary buyback agreement with a leading financial institution.

The bank will make its decisions on the timing of Tenaris' common stock purchases independently and not influenced by Tenaris. The program will begin today and end by March 26 and will cover up to USD700 million up to a maximum of 46.4 million shares.

Intesa Sanpaolo--up 1.7 percent at the end of the session--reported Monday that Fideuram has launched a new initiative to accelerate the growth of its Digital Wealth Management offering, in Italy and Europe, in partnership with BlackRock, a global leader in wealth management.

Banco BPM closed in the green by 1.6 percent. Of note, JP Morgan raised its target price to EUR7.50 from the previous EUR6.40 per share.

At the tail end of the main list, Moncler lost 1.2 percent on the heels of Friday's 3.7 percent red.

Marshall Wace raised its short position on the clothing company to 0.67% from 0.54%.

On the Mid-Cap, at the top of the list, El.En. gained 16 percent, after it announced Friday that it had signed an agreement with Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock to sell to the Chinese company the majority stakes of the companies falling under the group's Laser Cutting business unit, with a total expected value of EUR55.3 million.

Tinexta gave up 13 percent, with new price at EUR7.94 per share, a new low for the year.

On Friday, the company reported that it ended the first nine months with revenues of EUR305.7 million, up from EUR269.5 million in the same period last year. However, net income fell to EUR3.0 million from EUR12.2 million and adjusted net income decreased to EUR19.7 million from EUR27.7 million.

Sanlorenzo lost 2.5 percent in the wake of Friday's loss. Of note, in the first nine months of 2024 the company reported that profit was EUR79.2 million, up 9.0% from EUR66.9 million in the same period of 2023.

PharmaNutra--down 0.9 percent--reported Monday that in the first nine months it made a net profit of EUR13.2 million, up from EUR9.7 million in the same period of 2023.

Webuild up 1.6 percent--reported that in its Terra Verde joint venture, it has signed a AUD1.7 billion--EUR1 billion contract for the design and construction of the Tunnels North lot of the Suburban Rail Loop East, a project set to transform Melbourne's public transport.

Juventus FC did well, closing up 6.6 percent.

Fincantieri -- up 7.7 percent -- announced Friday that it had finalized an agreement with Crystal to build a new high-end cruise ship. Also impacting the ship company is news of the British defense program.

On Small-Cap, Unieuro is up 8.7% after Fnac surpassed 90% at the end of its takeover bid on the company's shares.

Good BasicNet up 4.7 percent--reported Monday that it had taken over 234,500 of its own shares for a total value of EUR1.4 million.

RCS MediaGroup closed up 1.3 percent after it announced Monday its results for the first nine months, which show net income at EUR32.1 million, up 4.3 percent from EUR27.8 million for the same period in 2023.

Beewize down 2.5 percent - reported Monday that it made a loss of EUR1.3 million in the first nine months from a EUR1.0 million liability in the same period a year earlier.

Valsoia flat at EUR9.60 per share - reported that it ended the first nine months with total sales revenue of EUR90.5 million from EUR86.0 million as of Sept. 30, 2023 and up 5.2 percent.

Among SMEs, topping the list are OSAI Automation System, up 22 percent, and UCapital24, up 12 percent at the end of the day.

Innovatec--down 4.5 percent--reported that it has approved the development plan to 2027 for the Energy Efficiency and Renewables business, which will remain under its control after the spin-off and listing, scheduled for early 2025, of the subholding Haiki+, active in the Environment and Circular Economy sectors.

At the tail end of the SME list, Adventure and Elsa Solutions left 13 percent apiece on the parterre.

In New York, the Dow is up 0.8 percent, the Nasdaq rises 0.1 percent, and the S&P 500 gains 0.3 percent.

Among currencies, the euro changes hands at USD1.0640 from USD1.0740 on Friday in closing European equities. The pound is worth USD1.2859 versus USD1.2930 on Friday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD71.88 per barrel from USD73.80 per barrel Friday night. Gold trades at USD2,624.35 an ounce from USD2,691.16 an ounce Friday night.

On Tuesday's macroeconomic calendar, we start in Japan at 0700 CET with data on machinery orders; at 0800 CET, the UK unemployment rate and the inflation figure in Germany are expected; at 1100 CET, also from Germany, it is the turn of the ZEW business confidence index; and at 1300 CET, from the US, the OPEC monthly report is expected to be released.

Among the companies in the Piazza Affari, results from B&C Speakers, Bialetti Industrie, De' Longhi, FILA, Iren, and Zest, among others, are expected.

By Antonio Di Giorgio, Alliance News reporter

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