(Alliance News) - On Wednesday, major European indexes closed in positive territory, especially with Milan returning to buoyancy after the government's decision to run for cover and halve the impact of the extraordinary tax on banks' extra-profits announced as a surprise on Monday night and which had severely weakened the sector on the stock market.

"The measure proposed by the Minister of Economy and Finance, shared and approved by the Council of Ministers, comes in the wake of already existing regulations in Europe on bank extra-margins. At the same time, the measure, for the purpose of safeguarding the stability of banking institutions, also provides a ceiling for the contribution that cannot exceed 0.1 percent of total assets," read the official statement issued by the Treasury last night in the words of Giancarlo Giorgetti.

Thus, the FTSE Mib closed up 1.3 percent to 28,308.09, the Mid-Cap up 0.6 percent to 41,723.73, the Small-Cap in the green 0.6 percent to 26,842.59, and Italy Growth up 0.3 percent to 8,880.93.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 ends up 0.8 percent, Paris' CAC 40 gains 0.7 percent and Frankfurt's DAX 40 closes in the green by 0.5 percent.

On the main index in Piazza Affari, FinecoBank comes out on top and rises 7.1 percent. The company last week reported that in July net inflows were confirmed at EUR486 million, in line with the estimates announced at the time of the first-half results.

Since the beginning of the year, inflows amount to EUR5.7 billion.

Banco BPM follows, up 5.5 percent. Also doing well is UniCredit, up 4.4 percent, and Intesa Sanpaolo - up 2.3 percent - which announced Monday that it had provided a EUR2.5 million loan to Selene, a Lucca-based company that is a leading manufacturer of flexible plastic packaging for industrial use mostly made of polyethylene, with funding made available by the European Investment Bank.

Despite the good results, Assicurazioni Generali gives up 1.2 percent and sits on the bottom after reporting normalized net income of EUR2.33 billion in the first half of the year, up 61 percent from EUR1.44 billion as of June 30, 2022.

Operating income is up sharply to EUR3.72 billion, up 28% from EUR2.90 billion, partly due to diversification of profit sources, which includes the contribution of completed acquisitions.

Leonardo gives up 0.3 percent after reporting Wednesday that it confirmed its leadership in the private helicopter transport market by announcing new contracts in Latin America during official ceremonies at the LABACE 2023 show.

Gruppomodena became the official distributor for Leonardo's AW119Kx, AW109, AW169, and AW139 helicopter models in the civil market in Uruguay and Argentina, and also signed a contract for two AW119Kx light single-engine aircraft.

On the Mid-Cap, Banca Popolare di Sondrio rises 2.5 percent after reviewing and approving the consolidated half-year financial report as of June 30 with a record net profit of EUR207.1 million from EUR105.0 million in the same period last year.

Net interest income amounted to EUR427.0 million up from EUR320.0 million in the first half of 2022.

Credito Emiliano gains 3.3 percent after approving consolidated results for the first half of the year on Monday, a period closed with consolidated net income at EUR298.7 million from EUR157.0 million in 2022. Credem points out that it expensed EUR25 million in contributions to funds for the management of troubled banks in that perid. The result is up 90% from the same period last year.

Return on capital-annualized ROE-was at 17.9 percent, while annualized ROTE was 20.8 percent.

Bologna's Guglielmo Marconi Airport rises 0.7 percent, after reporting Friday that it surpassed a record 1.1 million passengers in July, which improves by nearly 90,000 on the previous one.

The figure also shows a 17 percent increase over July 2019, before the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, and 13 percent over July 2022.

On the Small-Cap segment, Greenthesis is up 1.1 percent and announced that - through its wholly owned subsidiary company under Emirati law Ambienthesis Middle East DMCC - it has been commissioned to carry out the characterization activities, in the amount of about EUR100,000, functional to the subsequent remediation of hydrocarbon-contaminated soil to be carried out in the Abu Dhabi industrial area.

Pierrel--green by 3.8 percent--reported Monday that it has obtained marketing authorization in Ecuador for its Articaine-based dental anesthetic, Orabloc in the 1:100,000 formulation.

With the registration in Ecuador, Orabloc makes its entry into South America.

As of June 30, Tesmec Group -- in the red by 2.2 percent -- had consolidated revenues of EUR125.3 million up from EUR113.3 million as of June 30, 2022, mainly due to the performance of the Energy and Rail segments. Specifically, revenues from product sales of EUR97.0 million as of June 30, 2023, up from EUR70.9 million as of June 30, 2022, and revenues from services and work in progress of EUR28.3 million, down from EUR42.4 million.

Among SMEs, Laboratorio Farmaceutico Erfo rises 1.0 percent, after announcing Wednesday that the board of directors reviewed some consolidated economic and financial management data as of June 30, reporting revenues at EUR3.4 million up 21 percent from EUR2.8 million in the same period last year.

Ebitda is EUR1.03 million and adjusted Ebitda is about EUR1.02 million and equal to 30% of revenues.

Technoprobe gives up 8.5 percent after announcing Wednesday that the board of directors reviewed and approved consolidated results as of June 30 reporting a 53 percent drop in profit to EUR31.1 million from EUR66.6 million in the same period last year.

Consolidated revenues amounted to EUR196.3 million, down 22 percent from the first half of 2022 when they were EUR250.3 million.

Alfonsino - in the green by 1.4 percent - announced on Wednesday the official start of road testing of its new proprietary platform, announced to be in an advanced stage of development at the end of June.

In New York, at the height of trading Wednesday, the Dow is in the red by 0.5 percent, the Nasdaq is down 1.3 percent, and the S&P 500 gives up 0.7 percent.

Among currencies, the euro changes hands at USD1.0978 versus USD1.0970 in Tuesday's European equities close while the pound is worth USD1.2720 from USD1.2731 on Tuesday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD87.00 per barrel versus USD85.20 per barrel at last night's close. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,950.75 an ounce from USD1,925.83 an ounce Tuesday night.

Thursday's economic calendar opens at 0101 CEST in the UK with the RICS housing price report. At 0150 CEST from Japan it is the turn of foreign bond buying and foreign investment in equities.

At 1000 CEST in Italy, inflation data is expected to be published, and at the same time the ECB monthly report is released.

At 1300 CEST it is the turn of OPEC's monthly report. Also from the US, at 1430 CEST comes data on unemployment claims, inflation and real incomes.

Among the companies listed in Piazza Affari, results from Servizi Italia, Unipol and UnipolSai are expected.

By Claudia Cavaliere, Alliance News reporter

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