(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari contradicts futures and opens higher Friday, in the penultimate session of the year, on a day that was meager from both a macro and corporate perspective.
The FTSE Mib started Friday's trading up 0.4 percent to 33,880.30, the Mid-Cap climbs 0.5 percent to 47,490.32, the Small-Cap gains 0.7 percent to 27,974.11, and Italy Growth is up 0.3 percent to 7,822.36.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 is off to a strong start at 8,136.18, Paris' CAC 40 rises 0.2% to 7,298.44 and Frankfurt's DAX 40 is steady at 19,853.49.
On the highest-capitalization list in Piazza Affari, STMicroelectronics is off to a good start, up 1.9 percent and with nearly 620,000 pieces changed hands in a few minutes.
Financials follow, with Nexi up 1.4 percent and Banco BPM up 1.3 percent, while utilities trudge on.
Hera drops 0.8 percent, Italgas and Terna 0.7 percent, and A2A 0.6 percent. Snam closes the sector, down 0.6% shortly after the bell rings.
Eni rises 0.8% as it is about to turn on the World's most powerful supercomputer outside the US.
Costing more than EUR100 million, the new supercomputer, HPC6, contains nearly 14,000 Amd graphics processing units, high-power chips used to perform complex calculations and run artificial intelligence processes.
The supercomputer will be tasked with processing data to discover new oil and gas fields as well as performing calculations to promote clean energy.
On the Mid-Cap, The Italian Sea Group does best of all with a 2.6 percent rise.
Rai Way is tied after its board of directors confirmed its willingness to consider a potential merger with EI Towers.
The company's note had come after a joint statement issued by RAI, F2i, and MFEMediaForEurope-whose A shares rise 0.1 percent and B shares 0.3 percent-in which it was announced that a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding had been signed for the initiation of a possible merger of Rai Way and EI Towers.
Also on this list, utilities paid duty, with Acea in the red by 0.9%.
Among smallcaps, Bestbe Holding starts flat after announcing that it has co-opted Gabriele Minio as a member of the board of directors, also giving him the positions of chairman and chief executive officer of the company, after director Alberto Girotti was released from his position as chairman.
TXT e-solutions rises 1.4 percent. Before the Christmas break, the company announced that TLogos, a company part of the TXT group since 2022, was awarded the EUR7.5 million ESA tender.
TLogos will support ESA for the five-year period 2025-2029, working with excellent international partners such as NASA.
doValue rises 0.7 percent after providing notice of the August 4, 2020 indenture it signed with the trustees and agents under which doValue issued its EUR265.0 million 5.00% Senior Secured Notes due 2025. Now, the company will arrange early redemption of the same.
On the alternative capital market of Borsa Italiana, there are still few companies interested in trading.
Among them, however, IDNTT, up 11 percent, followed by Farmacosmo, up 8.2 percent.
At the bottom, G Rent gives up 6.9 percent and records the steepest decline, albeit with only 1,500 stocks changing hands.
In Asia, the Nikkei closed Friday up 1.8 percent to 40,281.16, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.1 percent to 3,400.14, and the Hang Seng was tied at 20,090.46.
In New York at Thursday's close, the Dow gained 0.1 percent to 43,325.80, the Nasdaq lost 0.1 percent to 20,020.36 and the S&P 500 finished slightly lower at 6,037.59.
Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0415 against USD1.0403 in Monday's European stock close. The pound is worth USD1.2526 from USD1.2518 on Monday evening.
Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD73.39 per barrel from USD72.08 per barrel at Monday's close. Gold trades at USD2,628.96 an ounce from USD2,612.92 an ounce on Monday evening.
Friday's macroeconomic calendar includes, at 1430 CET, from the US, the goods trade balance data while, at 1900 CET, it will be the turn of Baker Hughes drilling rigs.
At 2130 CET, as usual on Friday, the COT Report will be released.
Among the companies in the Square of Business, no particular announcements are expected.
By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter
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