(Alliance News) - Major European stock markets on Monday are expected to be in the red according to IG futures, with the exception of Paris, after a week that closed positively for all Old Continent stock exchanges.

Thus, the FTSE Mib is given in the red by 82.2 points or 0.3 percent after closing Friday in the green by 0.4 percent at 27,745.81.

In Europe, Paris' CAC 40 is expected to open up 32.0 points or 0.4 percent, London's FTSE 100 is expected to be in the red 17.5 points or 0.2 percent, while Frankfurt's DAX 40 is expected down 45.3 points or 0.3 percent.

Regarding last week's positive close, "it is not too difficult to find reasons behind the continued resilience of European markets, with improving economic numbers due to lower energy prices and better-than-expected corporate earnings numbers," comments Michael Hewson, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets UK.

"However, this does not mean that the recovery from the March lows is not fragile, and, there is nothing to suggest at the moment that it cannot continue as we reach the final week of what could be another positive month."

"This week's economic data are expected to focus on the first quarter GDP of the United States, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, all later this week, along with the Bank of Japan, which may change its yield curve control policy on Friday morning, against expectations," the analyst concludes.

Among Italy's smaller lists on Friday evening, the Mid-Cap closed in the green 0.5 percent to 43,870.53, the Small-Cap gave up 0.5 percent to 29,476.49, and Italy Growth finished in the green 0.2 percent to 9,237.94.

On the main list of Piazza Affari, Intesa Sanpaolo--which closed in the red by 0.2 percent--and Salcef Group announced on Friday that they had signed an agreement to sell back tax credits related to building bonuses and Superbonus with a tax value of EUR40 million.

Telecom Italia ended at the bottom by giving up 4.3 percent. From April 14 to April 21, in five sessions, it lost EUR560 million in capitalization.

"And, in the end, the Vivendi knot comes abruptly to the boil, with TIM's stock targeted by sales for the third day in a row," comments Francesco Bonazzi in Alliance News. "The Italian shareholders, starting with the public CDP, and the current management, yesterday, cashed in a defeat at the shareholders' meeting, and so a fact that the public debate tends to remove comes back into focus: the Bolloré family's financial company has 24 percent of the company and is by far the largest shareholder.

The company announced that it has acquired TS-Way, an Italian company specializing in cyber attack prevention and analysis services.

The deal was finalized through Telsy, a group company focused on cybersecurity, which operates within TIM Enterprise.

Saipem -- up 1.0 percent -- and Clough, the Australian subsidiary of the Webuild Group, in an equal joint venture, announced Friday that they had obtained full contractual effectiveness for the development of the Perdaman Industries urea plant, located on the coast of Western Australia, with the achievement of the Commencement Date.

The value of the new contract is just over USD2.8 billion-EUR2.56 billion; each JV participant's share is about USD1.4 billion.

Interpump Group, in the green by 1.4 percent, announced the acquisition of a 70 percent stake in I.Mec.

Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Reggio Emilia, I.Mec specializes in the manufacture of mechanical screens, i.e., devices for the granulometric selection of matter through vibration mechanisms, with the ceramic, recycling, purification, food and cosmetics industries as its main application sectors. The company ended fiscal year 2022 with a turnover of about EUR17 million and an Ebitda margin in the neighborhood of 23 percent.

The value of the transaction was set at around EUR14 million.

On the Mid-Cap, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore - which closed in the red by 0.8 percent - announced Thursday that it had executed a contract for the sale to PBF Srl of its 18.45 percent shareholding in Società Europea di Edizioni Spa, publisher of the daily newspaper Il Giornale.

Cementir Holding--which finished down 0.3 percent--reported that the shareholders' meeting renewed the board of directors, which will serve a three-year term, reducing the number of members to eight, including one executive director, Francesco Caltagirone, and seven nonexecutive directors.

Maire Tecnimont--in the red by 2.2 percent--reported Friday that its subsidiary NextChem, part of the Sustainable Technology Solutions business unit, after completing the advanced engineering study for methanation for the Salamandre project in Normandy, has been awarded a new contract by Storengy to perform an additional advanced engineering study for the gasification of wood waste and the purification of synthesis gas system to produce biomethane.

Salvatore Ferragamo ended at the tail giving up 5.9 percent after announcing Thursday consolidated revenues for the first quarter of 2023 reporting a decline to EUR277.9 million as of March 31 from EUR289.4 million in the same period of 2022.

On the Small-Cap, Sogefi closed 1.2% in the red. The company reported Friday that in the first quarter of 2023 it had revenues of EUR431.6 million, up 13 percent from EUR381.1 million in the same period of 2022.

Net income for the period amounted to EUR13.2 million up from EUR10.7 million in the first quarter of 2022.

Autostrade Merididionali closed in the red by 0.4 percent to EUR after its share price rose in the last five trading days alone to EUR23.30 on Thursday's close from EUR19.80 five sessions ago.

Piquadro closed unchanged at EUR1.77 per share after reporting Wednesday that revenues for the fourth quarter and full year ended March 31, 2023 rose by double digits year-on-year.

In fiscal 2022-2023, revenues increased 18 percent to EUR175.6 million from EUR149.4 million while, in the fourth quarter alone, they improved 22 percent to EUR48.8 million from EUR40.0 million.

Among SMEs, CleanBnB finished in the red by 0.9 percent after announcing that it had approved the draft of its financial statements for the year ended Dec. 31, having reported a loss of EUR155,305, an 86 percent improvement from a loss of EUR1.2 million in 2021.

Consolidated revenues amounted to EUR9.4 million from EUR4.0 million in the same period of the previous year and a triple-digit improvement of 136%.

Convergences - unchanged at EUR2.38 per share - reported that it viewed key management data for the first quarter, reporting revenues of EUR5.0 million from EUR6.1 million in the same period of 2022.

In detail, the TLC business unit achieved revenues of EUR2.4 million compared to EUR2.3 million in the first quarter of 2022, while the energy business unit while the Energy BU reported a 30 percent decrease in revenues to EUR2.6 million from EUR3.7 million in 2022.

Finlogic finished in the green by 0.4 percent after reporting Thursday that first quarter revenues rose 34 percent year-on-year to EUR20.3 million from EUR15.1 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

Without including the two companies taken over during 2022 in the accounts, revenues would mark a 12 percent increase to EUR16.9 million from EUR15.1 million.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed in fractional green at 28,571.96 and the Hang Seng is giving up 1.6 percent to 19,756.62, while the Shanghai Composite is down 1.0 percent to 3,368.87.

In New York on Friday, the Dow Jones closed above par at 33,808.96, the S&P finished in fractional green at 4,133.52 while the Nasdaq finished up 0.1 percent at 12,072.46.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0982 versus USD1.0973 at Friday's close. In contrast, the pound is worth USD1.2428 from USD1.2415 on Friday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD80.58 per barrel USD81.54 per barrel Friday night. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,981.38 an ounce from USD1,976.36 an ounce at Friday's close.

On Friday's economic calendar, at 1000 CEST in Germany the ifo index on euro zone business sentiment and assessment of the current German situation with business expectations will be released.

At 1430 CEST in Canada, the new home price index is expected.

In Piazza Affari, results from algoWatt, Destination Italia, Farmacosmo, Portale Sardegna and Take off are expected.

By Chiara Bruschi, Alliance News reporter

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