Middle East Tensions Weigh on Markets; Italy's Trade Surplus Halved

(Alliance News) - On Friday, leading European stock indices continued to trade in negative territory as escalating concerns emerged from the Middle East following Israel's strike on Iran.

Meanwhile, Tel Aviv announced it had intercepted all drones launched from Tehran using its Iron Dome defense system, while Iran's nuclear agency reported that the Natanz nuclear facility had suffered "significant"--though not yet quantifiable--damage.

As a result, the FTSE Mib fell 1.3% to 39,412.39, the Mid-Cap dropped 1.2% to 53,738.34, the Small-Cap shed 1.2% to 30,725.34, and the Italy Growth index slipped 0.6% to 8,054.83.

London's FTSE 100 was down 0.4% at 8,847.71, Paris' CAC 40 lost 1.1% to 7,679.93, and Frankfurt's DAX 40 declined 1.4% to 23,433.30.

On the macroeconomic front, Italy's trade surplus nearly halved in April compared to the same month last year, coming in at EUR2.48 billion, down from EUR4.83 billion in April 2024 and EUR3.66 billion in March this year.

The energy deficit stood at EUR4.25 billion, higher than the EUR3.79 billion recorded a year ago. The surplus in non-energy goods trade narrowed to EUR6.73 billion from EUR8.62 billion in April 2024.

From the Eurozone, Eurostat reported that seasonally adjusted industrial production declined by 2.4% in April after rising 2.4% in March.

Year-on-year, industrial production in the euro area increased by 0.8% in April 2024.

Preliminary estimates for the euro area's trade balance showed a surplus of EUR9.9 billion in goods traded with the rest of the world in April, compared to a EUR13.6 billion surplus in April 2024.

Turning to Milan, among the blue chips on Piazza Affari, Eni led the gains, up 1.5%. Saipem also advanced, rising 0.6%, alongside Tenaris, which gained 0.4%.

Leonardo also performed well, climbing 0.3%.

On the losing side, Nexi was the worst performer, dropping 3.3%. Banca Popolare di Sondrio also fell--down 2.3%--after voicing strong reservations about the public exchange offer launched by BPER Banca, which slipped 1.3%. Sondrio deemed the proposed valuation "not representative of the bank's true value."

In the banking sector, on Thursday, the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio rejected Banco BPM's request--not to suspend the public exchange offer launched by UniCredit, which was down 1.8%, on the Piazza Meda bank. BPM CEO Giuseppe Castagna reiterated that "as the market has always shown, the OPS launched on Banco BPM continues not to be advantageous for shareholders and never has been since day one."

Pirelli's shareholders' meeting--shares down 2.1%--approved the 2024 financial statements by majority, despite a negative vote from Marco Polo International Italy, the Sinochem-controlled vehicle holding 37% of the capital.

Sinochem clarified that its negative vote was unrelated to the financials, which it does not dispute, but was solely linked to information regarding the company's control structure, according to reports.

Buzzi--down 2.2%--announced Wednesday that Standard & Poor's had upgraded its long-term credit rating from 'BBB' to 'BBB+' and confirmed its short-term rating at 'A-2'.

Among mid-caps, Ariston Group fell 1.3%. The company signed a preliminary agreement to acquire 80% of Zecchi Riscaldatori Elettrici, a San Gillio-based firm founded in 1962 and specialized in band and tubular heating elements, recognized for their high technical quality both domestically and abroad.

S&P Global Ratings on Thursday confirmed a long-term 'BBB-' rating with a Stable outlook for Cementir Holding--down 0.9%--maintaining its investment grade status.

Maire Group--up 0.4%--launched the placement of around 5 million ordinary shares, equivalent to 1.5% of its capital, following the achievement of targets in its 2022-2024 and 2023-2025 incentive plans.

On the Small-Cap index, Biesse--down 1.4%--announced Thursday that Massimo Potenza had resigned as CEO and general manager with immediate effect to pursue new professional opportunities.

Edison's board--down 1.0%--on Thursday appointed Bernard Fontana as the company's new director, replacing outgoing director Luc Rémont.

Fidia--down 1.8%--said Wednesday it will proceed with a reverse stock split, effective June 16, consolidating shares at a ratio of 1 new share for every 100 existing shares. The move will reduce the number of outstanding shares from 746.6 million to 7.5 million units.

Among SMEs, SolidWorld Group--down 1.7%--reported that 384,450 new ordinary shares with bonus rights, which remained unsubscribed during the capital increase approved by the extraordinary shareholders' meeting on November 13, 2024 and executed by the board on March 26, have now been placed.

As part of the share placement, 384,450 new shares were subscribed at EUR1.20 each--EUR0.10 to capital and EUR1.10 to share premium reserve--raising a total of EUR461,340.00.

Almawave--flat at EUR3.195--announced Thursday that Velvet, its family of generative AI models, is now supported as the "Default LLM" within Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Data Science AI Quick Actions, enabling Oracle clients to easily test and deploy commercial foundational AI models.

Circle--down 1.2%--said Thursday it had signed a new contract worth EUR200,000 over about 12 months, as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen interoperability and drive digital transformation in the national port system.

Simone slipped 1.8% after announcing Friday that its shareholders' meeting had authorized the launch of a buyback program with a maximum value of EUR450,000.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed down 0.9% at 37,834.25, the Shanghai Composite lost 0.8% to 3,377.00, and the Hang Seng dropped 0.6% to 23,892.56.

In New York, at Thursday's close, the Dow gained 0.2% to 42,967.62, the Nasdaq rose 0.2% to 19,662.48, and the S&P 500 climbed 0.4% to 6,045.26.

In currency markets, the euro traded at USD1.1523, down from USD1.1581 Thursday evening, while the pound exchanged at USD1.3544 versus USD1.359 the previous evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude traded at USD75.00 per barrel, up from USD69.34 at the prior close, while gold was valued at USD3,444.75 per ounce, up from USD3,385.70 the day before.

On Friday's economic calendar, at 1700 CEST, a speech by European Central Bank's Elderson is scheduled, while at 1900 CEST, Baker Hughes will release data on the total number of U.S. oil rigs.

By Claudia Cavaliere, Alliance News reporter

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