(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari is expected to open Friday's session up, with the markets' eyes fixed on Moody's decision this evening on Italy's credit rating.

Heard exclusively by Alliance News, financial consultant Paolo Cardenà does not expect a downgrade by Moody's. Cardenà, highlighting the problems with Italian debt, positions himself on the side of observers who would like the U.S. agency not to sink the dagger into the rating, although he does not fail to criticize the Belpaese.

For the private banker, "although Italy has no problem placing its debt on the market, it is useful to remember that our country, over the past 15 years, in addition to expressing particularly modest growth, has seen its debt explode, reaching EUR2.8 trillion. More precisely, debt has increased by more than EUR1.1 trillion while Gross Domestic Product by just EUR370 billion, returning us with a debt-to-GDP ratio of about 140 percent."

The FTSE Mib is expected up 62.5 points or 0.2 percent after closing down 0.7 percent at 29,258.10 Thursday.

London's FTSE 100 is given up 23.8 points or 0.3 percent, Paris' CAC 40 is shown up 11.5 points or 0.2 percent and Frankfurt's DAX 40 is expected up 26.7 points or 0.2 percent.

In Milan last night, the Mid-Cap gave up 1.1 percent to 41,375.17, the Small-Cap fell 0.8 percent to 25,730.48, and the Italy Growth gained 0.1 percent to 7,662.81.

On the main list in Piazza Affari, Moncler closed down, down 2.6 percent. Oil stocks did worse, with Saipem at the bottom giving up 4.4 percent and Tenaris following with a 4.0 percent drop.

On the other side of the list, however, energy stocks fared well, with A2A doing best of all by rising 2.6 percent. Also on the podium were ERG and Hera, both up 1.4% each.

Still doing well is Leonardo, up 0.2 percent, after announcing the launch of a secondary public offering in the U.S. to sell 16.5 million ordinary shares in its subsidiary DRS, representing 6.3 percent of the latter's capital.

Following the offering, Leonardo US holding will hold approximately 74 percent of the issued and outstanding common shares of DRS or 73 percent if the option to acquire additional shares is exercised in full by the underwriting banks.

"Leonardo intends to use the proceeds of the transaction to increase its financial flexibility for value-creating investments and acquisitions while, at the same time, maintaining a solid financial structure," the company explained.

On the Mid-Cap, luxury lost ground as seen on the Mib, with Salvatore Ferragamo losing 2.7 percent, Tod's giving up 0.9 percent, and Brunello Cucinelli leaving 3.1 percent on the parterre.

Piaggio & C. gave up 1.0% the day after it announced that it had signed a EUR200 million revolving credit facility with a pool of banks with a 4-year term, with an option to extend for an additional year at the company's discretion.

Fincantieri closed unchanged at EUR0.53 per share. The company reported yesterday that it closed the first nine months with revenues up to EUR5.38 billion from EUR5.32 billion in the same period a year earlier. For the full year, Fincantieri expects revenues in line with 2022, a margin of 5 percent, and NFP almost unchanged from the end of last year.

On the Small-Cap, Safilo Group gave up 5.1 percent continuing the downtrend in fashion.

Brioschi--up 3.6 percent--reported Thursday that it had sold its entire 70 percent stake in Milanofiori Energia Spa to Getec Italia Spa.

The sale price for the 70 percent stake owned by Brioschi is about EUR3.2 million and has been paid in full by the buyer.

Somec rose 2.9 percent after announcing earlier that its subsidiary Bluesteel won a new contract in the UK worth about GBP9 million-about EUR10.5 million at today's exchange rate- related to the redevelopment project of an iconic tower, a symbol of 1960s London.

Bluesteel, part of the Naval Architectural and Civil Facades Engineered Systems division and active at the European level as a player in the fabrication and installation of curtain walls and window frames, will work on behalf of one of the UK's leading real estate companies, handling the design, supply and installation of the building's new entrance pavilion, the shielding of the plant area and the new volume that will be built to crown the tower.

Among SMEs, RES did not trade after reporting that it has obtained EUR8 million in financing from Banco BPM for the construction of the plastics recycling plant.

The five-year floating-rate credit line with eight months of pre-amortization is backed by an 80% SACE Green guarantee and finances the construction in Pettoranello, in the province of Isernia, of Phase I of the project to build an integrated center for the thrust sorting and recycling of plastics aimed at the production of secondary raw materials and the recovery of process waste by transformation into pyrolytic oil.

Good Datrix, up 12 percent. The SME has won a major European call for proposals - Horizon Europe - in the area of AI for healthcare.

The research project is called "Better," an acronym for Better Real-World Health-Data Distributed Analytics Research Platform, and aims to create a user-friendly platform that physicians in European hospitals will be able to use to view patient data - comparable and filterable by pathology or genetic parameters - and train predictive models, while complying with the most stringent privacy regulations globally related to health information, all through a federated learning and distributed AI approach.

In total, this is EUR10 million in funds allocated at the European level, about half of which will be used for genetic sequencing, since the genetic component is essential in the diseases being analyzed, divided into three macro-areas and as many applications: rare pediatric diseases, autism spectrum disorders in children and adolescents, and congenital visual problems, with a focus on retinal diseases.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed Friday up 0.5 percent to 33,585.20, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.1 percent to 3,054.37, and the Hang Seng was down 2.1 percent to 17,452.03.

In New York, the Dow closed yesterday down 0.1 percent to 34,945.47, the Nasdaq rose 0.1 percent to 14,113.67 and the S&P 500 gained 0.1 percent to 4,508.24.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0844 against USD1.0856 recorded at Thursday's European stock close while the pound was worth USD1.2383 from USD1.2416 last night.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD77.50 per barrel from USD78.21 per barrel at Thursday's close. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,983.76 an ounce from USD1,990.20 an ounce last night.

Friday's macroeconomic calendar includes, at 0930 CET, ECB President Christine Lagarde's speech. At 1000 CET, comes the Spanish trade balance.

At the same time, Eurozone current account and current account data are published. At 1100 CET, it is the turn of Eurozone inflation.

In the afternoon, from the US, at 1430 CET, data on building permits, new residential construction and building permits are expected.

Among the companies listed in Piazza Affari, results from Circle, Innovatec and Health Italia are expected.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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