(Alliance News) - Futures signal a bullish opening for the last session of the week, marked by several quarterly reports as well as macro data from which it is hoped to get some additional clues on the path of monetary policy by the major central banks.

In this regard, on Thursday, the Bank of England raised interest rates again by 25 basis points as it grapples with rampant inflation, and the central bank significantly raised its economic outlook for the United Kingdom, predicting that a recession will be avoided.

The quarter-point increase, in line with market expectations, brings the benchmark bank rate to 4.50 percent from 4.25 percent. This is the 12th consecutive BoE rate increase. The official rate was at 0.10% before the current round of hikes.

Thus, the FTSE Mib -- on IG platform futures -- marks a bullish reading of 90.00 points, after closing down 0.6 percent at 27,098.89.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 advances 24.70 points, Paris' CAC 40 advances 28.40 points, and Frankfurt's DAX 40 has a bullish reading of 43.00 points.

Last night, on the smaller lists, the Mid-Cap closed up 0.2 percent to 43,004.54, the Small-Cap gives up 0.6 percent to 28,306.09, while Italy Growth loses 0.1 percent to 9,097.90.

On the Mib yesterday, A2A rose 1.3 percent despite falling revenues. The company announced Thursday that its board of directors reviewed and approved its quarterly report as of March 31, 2023 reporting an ordinary profit of EUR173 million from EUR106 million in the same period last year. Third-quarter revenues are down 7 percent to EUR5.13 billion from EUR5.53 billion in Q1 2022.

Banca Generali -- down 0.8 percent -- reported that it made a profit of EUR83.1 million in the first quarter of 2023, up 22 percent from EUR68.3 million recorded in the same period of 2022.

Campari rose 1.1 percent after it reported that it successfully placed an unrated seven-year bond aimed at institutional investors only. The offering concerns a bond that has a nominal amount of EUR300 million and matures on May 18, 2030, and pays a fixed annual coupon of 4.71 percent.

Recordati's board of directors--up 2.1 percent--approved the financial report as of March 31, 2023, which closed with a net profit of EUR124.0 million as a percentage of revenues of 23 percent. This shows a 28% increase over the same period last year. Consolidated net revenues in the first quarter of 2023 amounted to EUR551.4 million up 32 percent from the first quarter of the previous year.

Prysmian's board of directors, down 3.8 percent in closing, approved the group's consolidated results for the first quarter of 2023, which ended with a net profit of EUR182 million compared to EUR126 million in the corresponding period of 2022.

Snam gave up 0.8 percent after reporting Thursday that first-quarter net profit fell to EUR304 million from EUR312 million in the same period a year earlier. Profits fell despite a 13 percent increase in revenues to EUR912 million from EUR808 million in the first quarter of 2022. Revenues from the energy transition businesses increased significantly by EUR124 million, doubling year-on-year, mainly due to the development of energy efficiency, in particular, in the residential sector.

Iveco Group sat on the bottom with 6.0 percent, after reporting that it had approved results for the first quarter of 2023, which closed with a profit of EUR10 million compared with a loss of EUR15 million in the same period last year. Revenues were EUR3.39 billion compared to EUR3.04 billion last year.

On the cadet segment, BFF Bank -- up 2.6 percent -- reported Thursday that it ended the first quarter with a net profit of EUR48.4 million, up from EUR31.3 million in the same period last year.

Iren's board of directors, which gave up 0.5 percent, announced Thursday that it had approved results as of March 31, 2023, reporting first-quarter group net income attributable to shareholders of EUR135 million, up 15 percent from EUR118 million in the same period of 2022. The 2022 result included the negative impact of the solidarity contribution of EUR24 million.

Tod's confirmed the bullish trend and closed in the green by 2.0 percent. The stock benefited -- in addition to good first quarter accounts -- from a target price increase by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

Industrie de Nora, on the other hand, gave up 3.7 percent to EUR16.81 per share. The company reported Thursday that first-quarter net income fell to EUR25 million from EUR26.5 million in the same period a year earlier.

On the Small-Cap, Biesse -- up 0.6 percent -- approved results for the first quarter of the year during which it reported a profit of EUR12.3 million from EUR9.8 million in the same period a year earlier. Consolidated net revenues amounted to EUR209.5 million from EUR196.6 million as of March 31, 2022.

Aeffe, on the other hand, gave up 0.9 percent in the aftermath of the publication of its quarterly report. Results for the first quarter of the year reported a net loss of EUR300,000 from a profit of EUR8.9 million for the same period in 2022.

TXT e-solutions rose 1.6 percent after it announced that its board of directors on Thursday met to approve operating results as of March 31 reporting a net profit of EUR2.9 million, up 40 percent from EUR2.1 million in the first quarter of 2022, net of tax charges of EUR1.1 million.

Among SMEs, Poligrafici Printing gave up 4.0 percent after announcing Thursday that it reported consolidated revenues as of March 31 of EUR6.1 million from EUR6.9 million.

Eles Semiconductors lost 1.0 percent after reporting that net income for 2022 was EUR653,000, down from net income of EUR854,000 a year earlier.

Sales revenue for the period taking into account the recent acquisition of CBL Electronics Srl and its investee from October 2022 and Campera ES Srl from January 2022 was EUR26.1 million from EUR19.0 million as of December 31, 2021, an overall increase of 37%.

It did better than all Frendy Energy, topping with 12 percent.

In New York on the European night, the Dow gave up 0.7 percent, the S&P gave up 0.2 percent, and the Nasdaq picked up 0.2 percent.

Among Asian exchanges, the Nikkei left 0.9 percent on the sidelines, the Hang Seng is giving up 0.5 percent, while the Shanghai Composite is proceeding 1.0 percent in the red.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0927 versus USD1.0911 at Thursday's close. In contrast, the pound is worth USD1.2521 from USD1.2503 last night.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD74.60 per barrel compared to USD75.74 per barrel on Wednesday night. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD2,010.55 an ounce from USD2,023.00 an ounce at Wednesday's close.

On Friday's macroeconomic calendar, in Europe, at 0845 CEST it is the turn of inflation in France, at 0900 CEST comes the producer price index in Spain, and at the same time data on foreign direct investment and new mortgages in China.

At 1230 CEST the Spanish consumer confidence index is expected.

Overseas, at 1430 comes data on the U.S. export and import price index.

By Maurizio Carta, Alliance News reporter

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