Mib remains down; brakes on inflation in Italy

(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari continued to fall in Friday's session, following the release of Italy and Eurozone inflation data and ahead of U.S. labor market data.

Italian inflation continued to slow in December, ending the year sharply lower than a year earlier, Istat reported Friday.

Consumer prices rose 0.6 percent year-on-year in December after rising 0.7 percent in November.

On average, consumer prices in 2023 will register 5.7 percent growth from 8.1 percent growth in 2022. Net of energy and fresh food, consumer prices grow 5.1 percent from 3.8 percent a year earlier and, net of energy alone, 5.3 percent from 4.1 percent in 2022.

According to a Eurostat flash estimate released Friday, annual Eurozone inflation is expected to stand at 2.9 percent in December, from the more than two-year low of 2.4 percent recorded in November, but slightly below the market consensus of 3.0 percent.

The FTSE Mib is down 0.3% to 30,175.32, the Mid-Cap gives up 1.4% to 43,257.81, the Small-Cap loses 1.0% to 27,665.38, and Italy Growth is down 0.1% to 8,290.10.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 is down 0.9% to 7,651.16, Paris' CAC 40 gives up 1.1% to 7,370.28 and Frankfurt's DAX 40 loses 0.8% to 16,481.70.

Leonardo gives up 1.0 percent at mid-session after closing ahead yesterday following an upgrade by Bernstein, which now has an 'outperform' rating on the defense stock, improving it from its previous 'market-perform' rating.

Worse still is Recordati, as at the start, which accentuated its initial decline to 2.3 percent.

Also hurting are STMicroelectronics and Campari, in the red by 1.7 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively, while Brunello Cucinelli, in the red by 2.3 percent, still does not shine, in its third week on Piazza Affari's highest-capitalization list.

On the Mid-Cap, Saras pays duty for the barrel price and gives up 5.4% at mid-session, with as many as 10.5 million pieces changed hands in a few minutes.

Seco, in the red by 2.9 percent, and OVS, down 1.7 percent at the turn of the last session of the week, are also bad.

Only Ariston Holding, up 2.1 percent, with 430,000 shares traded, did well. The value of a share is EUR6.2150 at mid-day.

Among the small-cap companies, Aeroporto Guglielmo Marconi Di Bologna rises 1.0% after making it known that it definitely surpassed its pre-pandemic traffic levels in 2023 and recorded the best year in its history, coming close to 10 million passengers.

In detail, the airport recorded nearly 10 million passengers, representing a growth of 17 percent over 2022 and 6.0 percent over 2019.

After a still "lukewarm" start to the year, with numbers up on 2022 but still lower than the same period in 2019, the first reversal of the trend has been recorded since May, with the progressive passenger figure in the positive field by 0.5 percent even compared to the last year without Covid.

ePrice gives up 10 percent after receiving the second bond conversion request from Negma Group Investment in two days.

The bonds are part of the first two tranches--from a total of 161 bonds--of the convertible bond underwritten by Negma, and the two in question have a total equivalent value of EUR20,000.

Bioera soars, up 8.1 percent, with the stock readmitted to trading after being suspended for excess volatility at the start of the session.

Among Milan-listed SMEs, Vantea SMART rises 4.6 percent after announcing Friday that it has been eligible for regional funding from Abruzzo for the WTTM project.

The company will receive a grant of EUR560,000 for a project whose total amount is EUR800,000. The WTTM - Welcome To The Machine project involves the design and testing of a cybersecurity framework to be applied to companies operating in the automotive world.

Among the few stocks that traded, eVISO recorded the best performance, thanks to a 7.2 percent rise, while Fenix Entertainment was on the opposite side, down 11 percent.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed Friday up 0.3 percent to 33,377.42, the Shanghai Composite lost 0.9 percent to 2,929.18 and the Hang Seng gave up 0.7 percent to 16,535.33.

In New York at Thursday's close, the Dow finished up slightly at 37,440.34, the Nasdaq lost 0.6 percent to 14,510.30 and the S&P 500 gave up 0.3 percent to 4,688.68.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0909 against USD1.0956 recorded at Thursday's European stock close while the pound is worth USD1.2657 from USD1.2790 last night.

Brent crude is worth USD78.13 per barrel versus USD76.74 per barrel at Thursday's close. Gold, meanwhile, trades at USD2,037.97 an ounce from USD2,044.62 an ounce last night.

Friday's macroeconomic calendar includes, from the US, at 1430 CET, the nonfarm payrolls report and the unemployment rate. At 1600 CET, it will be the turn of the durable goods report; at 1900 CET the Baker Hughes data; and at 2130 CET, as usual on Friday, it will be the turn of the COT Report.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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