(Alliance News) - Major European stock exchanges meet forecasts and open higher on Friday in the aftermath of the announcement by the ECB that it has confirmed a 25 basis point increase in its interest rates.

"The key point was, once again, that the inflation outlook in the Eurozone has remained 'too high for too long,'" commented Ipek Ozkardeskaya, Senior Analyst at Swissquote Bank.

Lagarde left the door wide open to further rate hikes in the coming months, pledging to raise official rates to sufficiently restrictive levels and to keep them there as long as necessary.

"No one knows what 'sufficiently restrictive' means, but the 'decisions'-in the plural-have reinforced expectations that there will likely be two more rate hikes before the ECB stops tightening after the summer."

"This is important because it signifies a clear aggressive divergence between the Fed, which is weakened and handcuffed by the ongoing regional banking crisis, and the ECB, which is not facing the same intensity of banking stress as the U.S. and may continue to focus on inflation to make decisions."

The growing divergence between the ECB and Fed policy outlooks creates a stronger case for a significantly higher euro against the U.S. dollar; price declines continue to present an attractive opportunity to strengthen long positions in the single currency, the analyst concludes.

Thus, the FTSE Mib opens up 1.1 percent at 26,967.30.

Among Italy's smaller lists, the Mid-Cap opens up 0.7 percent to 43,042.81, the Small-Cap picks up 0.5 percent to 28,564.45, and Italy Growth opens in the green 0.3 percent to 9,163.13.

In Europe, the CAC 40 opens in the green by 0.4 percent, the FTSE 100 is up 0.8 percent, and Frankfurt's DAX 40 advances 0.5 percent.

On the main list in Piazza Affari, ERG opens in the green by 0.8 percent. On Friday, through its subsidiary ERG Spain HoldCo SLU, it signed an agreement with IBV Solar Parks, BV -- a company belonging to the German group ib vogt GmbH, a global platform for the development of industrial solar power plants -- to acquire 100 percent of Garnacha Solar SL.

In addition, Fitch Ratings confirmed for ERG a long term issuer default rating of 'BBB-' with a Stable outlook and a senior unsecured rating of 'BBB-,' as disclosed by the rating agency.

Telecom Italia gains 4.2 percent and takes the top spot after letting it know Thursday that the board of directors has "thoroughly analyzed the non-binding offers received for Netco from the consortium formed by CDP Equity Spa and Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets Europe Limited and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co LP and deemed them not yet adequate."

Mediobanca - in the green by 1.1 percent - reported Thursday that it had completed the placement of the Quarzo ABS, a securitization of loans provided by Compass Banca, totaling EUR450m.

Moncler -- in the red by 1.1 percent, it is one of the very few bearish performers -- reported Thursday that it had reported consolidated group revenues of EUR726.4 million in the first quarter of the year, up 23 percent from EUR589.9 million in the same period a year earlier.

Ferrari picks up 0.3 percent. The prancing horse company said it reported net revenues of EUR1.42 billion in the first quarter of the year, up 20 percent from EUR1.18 billion recorded as of March 31, 2022. Net income stood at EUR297 million from EUR239 million in the same quarter of 2022, up 24 percent.

Poste Italiane picks up 1.6 percent after quarterly results as of March 31, 2023, which were in line with guidance for the year. Profit is EUR540 million from EUR494 million in the same period last year, up 9.4% Revenues are EUR3.0 billion from EUR2.8 billion, up 8.1%.

On the Mid-Cap, Zignago Vetro opens up 2.0% after reporting Thursday that first-quarter net income rose to EUR29.7 million from EUR12.5 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

Revenues increased by double digits to EUR198.0 million from EUR147.3 million.

Anima Holding gave up 0.3 percent. On Thursday it reported that the group's net inflows of assets under management in April were EUR86 million positive. In contrast, net inflows for the first four months were negative EUR482 million. At the end of April, the group's total assets under management stood at more than EUR182 billion.

On the Small-Cap, there is Giglio Group opens in the green by 1.8 percent after closing in the red by 22 percent. In fact, the auditing firm BDO Italy announced that it is unable to express an opinion on the financial statements as of December 31, 2023. "We do not express an opinion on the company's annual financial statements. We were unable to acquire sufficient and appropriate evidence on the valuation of material items in the financial statements, including for the purpose of assessing the adequacy of the use of the going concern assumption, in the preparation of the financial statements as of December 31, 2022," the auditing firm announced.

The Giglio Group's board of directors "takes note of the conclusions reached" by BDO Italia "in the knowledge that it has acted correctly in the interest of the company and reserves further comments following a more in-depth examination of the reports."

The board of directors of Risanamento -- in the green by 2.4 percent -- on Thursday approved the management report for the year ended March 31, which closed with a consolidated loss of EUR7.5 million that is not significantly different with the negative result as of March 31, 2022 of EUR6.5 million.

Value of production was EUR314 million compared to EUR296 million in the first quarter of last year.

The board of directors of Autostrade Meridionali -- in the red by 2.6 percent -- approved the financial report as of March 31, which ended with a loss for the period of EUR556,000 compared to the first quarter 2022 profit of EUR8.9 million.

Finally, among SMEs, Cofle opens up 0.9 percent after announcing on Friday that consolidated revenue for the first quarter of 2023 was EUR17.1 million, up 19 percent from EUR14.3 million in the same period of 2022.

The board of directors of CrowdFundMe-which is not yet affected by exchanges-approved the draft consolidated financial statements as of December 31 and reported a loss of EUR400,000 from one for EUR46,000 last year.

Intred's board of directors reported revenues of EUR12.2 million as of March 31, up 9.0 percent from the first quarter of 2022. The stock does not yet trade.

Comer Industries -- in the green by 1.5 percent -- reported Thursday that it reported first quarter sales revenues of EUR345.9 million, up 11 percent from EUR311.5 million in the first quarter of 2022.

In Asia, while the stock exchange in Japan is closed for holidays, the Shanghai Composite ended in the red 0.5 percent to 3,334.50 and the Hang Seng is in the green 0.5 percent to 20,041.23.

In New York, the Dow Jones closed in the red 0.9 percent to 33,127.74, the Nasdaq gave up 0.5 percent to 4,061.22, and the S&P 500 finished in the red 0.7 percent to 4,061.22.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.1037 versus USD1.1005 at Thursday's close. In contrast, the pound is worth USD1.2621 from USD1.2572 on Thursday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD73.73 per barrel versus USD72.39 per barrel on Thursday evening. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD2,042.03 an ounce from USD2,049.67 an ounce at Thursday's close.

On Friday's macroeconomic calendar, at 1000 CEST come Italian retail sales, followed at 1100 by Eurozone retail sales.

At 1430 CEST are nonfarm payrolls and the US unemployment rate. At 1900 CEST, it's the turn of Baker Hughes plant data, and at 2230 CEST, as usual, the COT Report.

Among companies, results from Almawave, Anima Holding, CNH Industrial, Esautomotion, Intesa Sanpaolo, Piaggio and Terna are expected.

By Chiara Bruschi, Alliance News reporter

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