(Alliance News) - European stock markets open lower Wednesday morning following yesterday's announcement by Saudi Arabia and Russia that they will extend oil production cuts through the end of December.

"With oil prices jumping to their highest levels since November after OPEC+ extended production cuts through the end of the year, fears are growing that the rise in oil prices, which we have witnessed since June, lays a foundation for the recent price slowdown and keeps inflation at elevated levels for longer. This fear is reflected in the sharp rise in bond yields of both British gilts and U.S. treasuries yesterday, while the U.S. dollar also rose to six-month highs," commented Michael Hewson, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets.

"Rising yields and oil prices also complicate the challenge central banks face in their battle to contain inflation and bring it back toward the 2 percent target rate," Hewson added.

Thus, the FTSE Mib opens down 0.3 percent at 28,562.00, the Mid-Cap is in fractional green at 42,023.740, as is the Small-Cap at 27,205.120 while Italy Growth is below par at 8,876.90.

In Europe, Paris' CAC 40 gives up 0.7 percent, Frankfurt's DAX 40 opens in the red by 0.4 percent, while London's FTSE 100 is down 0.8 percent.

On the macro front, factory orders in Germany fell nearly 12 percent month-on-month in July, worse than market estimates of a 4.0 percent drop and moving from an upwardly revised 7.6 percent growth in the previous month, according to data released Wednesday by the Federal Statistical Office.

This was the first decline in industrial orders since March and the strongest pace since April 2020, dragged down by weakness in large-scale orders.

On the bluechip list, Telecom Italia topped the list, rising 1.1 percent. It is followed by Stellantis - up 1.0% - and Saipem and Eni, in the green by 0.6% and 0.4%.

Closing out the minority bullish group are Prysmian and Mediobanca, in the green by 0.2% and fractional green, respectively.

Prysmian on Tuesday disclosed that it has signed a capacity reservation agreement for a capacity reservation fee of up to about EUR90 million with Marinus Link Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of TasNetworks, Australia's transmission system operator, for a new power interconnection between Tasmania and the state of Victoria.

The agreement provides, among other things, for the Commonwealth government's guarantee of the capacity reservation fee of up to approximately EUR90 million and the continued availability of capacity by Prysmian until the final contract is signed to be in place by July 2024.

Assicurazioni Generali -- in the red by 0.2 percent -- placed on Tuesday a new euro-denominated Tier 2 bond maturing in September, issued in a green format under its Sustainability Bond Framework.

During the bond placement, orders in excess of EUR1.1 billion, "more than twice the supply, were raised from a highly diversified base of around 180 international institutional investors, including a significant presence of funds with sustainable/SRI mandates," Generali added.

BPER Bank opens down 0.2 percent. On Tuesday it announced that it had completed the placement of the EUR500 million Senior Non Preferred bond issue with a maturity of 6 years and the possibility of early redemption after 5 years intended for institutional investors.

Confirming the high market interest in BPER Banca, the issue has collected orders exceeding EUR1.3 billion from about 130 investors.

On the Mid-Cap, Anima Holding opens in the red by 0.3 percent after announcing Wednesday that net inflows from assets under management in August were positive by EUR256 million. Taking into account Branch I insurance proxies, negative EUR1.12 billion, total net inflows for the month were negative EUR866 million, and negative EUR742 million since the beginning of the year.

At the end of August, the group's total assets under management stood at about EUR188.2 billion up from EUR182.8 billion recorded on August 31, 2022.

GVS retreats with 1.0 percent. It reported Tuesday that it reported a net profit of EUR7.3 million in the first half, up from EUR32.4 million as of June 30, 2022. Consolidated revenues in the period amounted to EUR213.4 million, up 28 percent from EUR166.6 million in 2022.

On the Small-Cap, Olidata takes the top spot with a 3.2 percent rise after reporting Tuesday that it was awarded an Enel contract worth about EUR5.0 million through its subsidiary Sferanet.

The contract is for a digitization and document management solution, Olidata points out in a statement.

Immsi, in the red by 0.6 percent, said Tuesday that its board of directors approved its half-year report as of June 30, reporting a net profit of EUR47.1 million, up 27 percent from EUR24.4 million in the same period of 2022.

Revenues amounted to EUR1.28 billion, up from EUR1.07 billion in the first half of 2022.

Itway rises 0.9 percent after eve's red after reporting Friday that it has signed a partnership with CLoudian, a leading enterprise-class object storage software company. As explained by Itway, this partnership aims to further expand Itway's cyber security and cyber resilience offerings. Itway Group expects revenues of EUR5 million in the next two years by operating in the service provider, public administration, healthcare, energy, education, banking and insurance sectors.

Piquadro advances 2.2 percent. The company, which is continuing with its buyback program, most recently disclosed Monday that it bought back its own shares worth a total of EUR67,000 or so between August 28 and September 1.

Giglio Group--which does not yet price--reported Tuesday that it had narrowed its first-half loss to EUR900,000 from one of EUR1.6 million in the same period last year.

Sales revenues amounted to EUR27.1 million, up 23 percent from EUR22.0 million as of June 30, 2022.

Aeroporto Guglielmo Marconi Di Bologna -- up 1.0% -- reported Tuesday that it recorded one million passengers in August.

The monthly figure of nearly 1.06 million represents growth of 16 percent over the pre-Covid figure for August 2019 and 11 percent over August 2022, but remains slightly below the July 2023 record of 1.07 million.

Among SMEs, Digital360 is flat at EUR5.34. The company announced Tuesday that it has concluded through its Spanish subsidiary Digital360 Iberia SL, the acquisition of a 51% stake in Omnitel Comunicaciones SL, and 55% in AdjudicacionesTic SL, both based in Madrid, with the possibility of acquiring the remaining shares in 2026, in conjunction with the approval of the budget for the year 2025.

Intred is not yet trading. On Tuesday, it entered into a multi-year framework agreement with Vodafone Italia for the provision under IRU - Indefeasible Right of Use - of fiber-optic network sections owned by Intred.

The value of the first supply lot, the company points out, is more than EUR3 million.

Alfonsino gives up 1.3 percent, despite the fact that on Tuesday it announced that it had reached a collaboration agreement with Gruppo VéGé, the first Modern Distribution group to be born in Italy, consisting of 32 member companies located throughout Italy and active with more than 3,000 stores including hypermarkets, superettes and Cash&Carry.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed up 0.8 percent, the Shanghai Composite closed up 0.1 percent and the Hang Seng was down 0.1 percent.

Among U.S. exchanges, the Dow Jones closed down 0.6 percent to 34,641.97, the S&P down 0.4 percent to 4,496.83 while the Nasdaq finished down 0.1 percent to 14,020.95.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0735 against USD1.0715 in Tuesday's European equities close while the pound was worth USD1.2569 to USD1.2565 Tuesday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD89.73 per barrel versus USD90.78 per barrel at Tuesday's close. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,924.32 an ounce from USD1,927.00 an ounce Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday's economic calendar, the Eurozone retail sales figure is due at 1100 CEST.

At 1300 CEST the 30-year mortgage rate, at 1430 CEST the trade balance, at 1545 CEST manufacturing and services PMI. In the evening, at 2000 CEST there will be a Fed speech by Logan, and at 2230 CEST the weekly oil stocks figure.

Among companies, results from Aeroporto Guglielmo Marconi Di Bologna, Cellularline and Tod's are expected.

By Chiara Bruschi, Alliance News reporter

Comments and questions to redazione@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2023 Alliance News IS Italian Service Ltd. All rights reserved.