Indexes up sharply in Piazza Affari in the penultimate session of the year, although trading is fairly thin typical of this period between the Christmas and year-end holidays.

Almost non-existent macro cues and themes to report today.

On Wall Street futures are negative, portending a down start for U.S. indices in the afternoon after rallying in previous sessions.

Around 12:40 p.m., the Ftse Mib gained 0.70 percent. When there is one session left before the end of 2024, the Ftse Mib index is up 11.95 percent since the beginning of the year. With this performance, the Piazza Affari blue chip index ranks third in Europe, tailed by Amsterdam's Aex with a slightly lower percentage. In second place is Madrid with the Ibex up 13.71 percent and in first place is Frankfurt with the Dax soaring with gains approaching 19 percent.

Volumes are around 600 million today.

Headlines today:

Always well collected banks, protagonists this year thanks in part to expectations on M&A. Unicredit is up 1.55 percent, Intesa Sanpaolo up 0.80 percent. Better Banco Bpm, which advances 1.3%.

Rips Illimity Bank up 8.3% after the closing of the deal with Apax Partners, with the transfer to a subsidiary of Apax of 52% of a NewCo in exchange for 62.4 million euros and a capital gain of about 52 million euros. During 2024, the stock is down just under 40%.

The letter continues on the entire utility sector, although recovering from the lows touched at the start of the session, penalized by the jump in government bond yields that become more competitive with respect to investing in the shares of regulated energy companies. The worst is Terna down 0.5 percent, followed by Italgas at -0.20 percent,A2A at -0.24 percent and Enel at -0.4 percent.

Repurchases on Nexi up about 2 percent with two sessions to go before the conclusion of a lean 2024 for the stock's performance, which is about 28 percent red.

Buyers on Leonardo up 0.66% at the conclusion of a very positive year for the entire defense sector and which saw the stock rise 74%.

Oil also did well with Eni up 1.2% and Saipem up 1.8%.

(Giancarlo Navach, editing Claudia Cristoferi)