Piazza Affari continues its downward trend as the market remains in risk-off mode due to escalating geopolitical tensions.
Investors are closely monitoring the flow of news from the conflict front between Israel and Iran, in a wait-and-see atmosphere heavily influenced by fears of direct U.S. involvement alongside Israel.
In this highly uncertain context, investors are opting to lighten their portfolios and focus on the most evident market drivers related to the conflict, such as oil price movements, which are impacting energy sector stocks.
Today's closure of Wall Street for a public holiday is also contributing to lower trading volumes, which are below €900 million.
Around 13:40 local time, the Ftse Mib index was down by 0.66%.
Stocks in focus:
Eni rose by 0.3% following another increase in crude oil prices, although the sector has lost some momentum compared to the gains seen earlier in the morning.
Saipem retraced by 0.5%. The oil services company has secured a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) contract from Sonatrach for fertilizer production in Algeria. According to broker Equita, "at the moment, the project's size is of limited numerical significance, but it could become a major project in the future if approved by the client."
The luxury sector faced selling pressure, with Moncler falling by 2.8% after Morgan Stanley and Barclays cut their target price. Ferragamo also dropped 2.5%, and Cucinelli was down 2.9%, as the sector, closely tied to tourism flows, suffers from the impact of war-related uncertainty.
Banks remained weak, with the sector index down by 0.6%.
(Andrea Mandalà, editing by Antonella Cinelli)
