(Alliance News) - On Wednesday, major European stock markets confirm expectations and open in positive territory as PMI data from France and Germany are released and ahead of Eurozone data expected soon.

Thus, the FTSE Mib is up 0.5 percent to 28,318.12, the Mid-Cap is up 0.1 percent to 41,329.82, the Small-Cap is in the green 0.6 percent to 26,920.95, while Italy Growth is in fractional green at 8,832.27.

In Europe, Paris' CAC 40 is up 0.5 percent, Frankfurt's DAX is up 0.6, and London's FTSE 100 is in the green by 0.4 percent.

In macroeconomic news, the Composite PMI index for Germany fell to 44.7 in August from 48.5 in July, well below forecasts of 48.3, according to a preliminary estimate released by S&P Global on Wednesday.

The reading indicated the sharpest contraction in private sector activity since the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak in May 2020, as a deepening decline in manufacturing output was accompanied by a renewed contraction in services activity.

In France, the Composite PMI was estimated at 46.6 in August, reaching a 32-month low in July and below market expectations of 47.5.

The latest reading indicated the third consecutive month of economic contraction in the Eurozone's second-largest economy, which occurred at a solid pace.

On the blue chip list, ERG takes the top spot with a 1.3 percent rise, followed by BPER Bank with a 1.2 percent gain and Nexi, up 1.1 percent.

Prysmian gives up 0.1%, the day after announcing that it has been selected by TSO Amprion, a leading European transmission system operator, as preferred bidder for the two offshore grid connection systems BalWin1 and BalWin2 and the DC34 onshore cable project. The preferred bidder agreement requires the parties to negotiate in good faith on the yet-to-be-defined points of the projects, with the goal of entering into final contracts by January 15, 2024.

Worse performers are only Unipol, which sits on the bottom, giving up 0.8 percent, and Tenaris, down 0.5 percent.

Terna gains 1.4 percent after reporting Tuesday that electricity demand in Italy totaled 30.1 billion kWh in July, registering a 3.3 percent decrease compared to the same period in 2022.

In July, 85.6 percent of Italy's electricity demand was met by domestic production and the remaining 14.4 percent by the balance of energy traded with foreign countries. Net domestic production was 25.9 billion kWh, down 2.7 percent from July 2022.

Renewables produced a total of 11.6 billion kWh, covering 38.4 percent of electricity demand, which was 31.3 percent in July last year. Production from renewables in July is broken down as 38.4 percent from hydro, 33.6 percent from photovoltaics, 12.4 percent from biomass, 11.7 percent from wind and 3.9 percent from geothermal.

Intesa Sanpaolo -- in the green by 0.7 percent -- could consider smaller-scale acquisitions in the European regions where it operates and in key countries in the Mediterranean basin to strengthen some of its core businesses, Bloomberg News reported Friday.

Stellantis rises 0.1 percent and touted along with Controlled Thermal Resources Holdings Inc. a major investment of more than USD100 million by the automaker to advance the development of CTR's Hell's Kitchen project, the World's largest dedicated lithium geothermal project.

The project will produce up to 300,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent per year. The lithium produced at Hell's Kitchen will enable Stellantis' BEV vehicles to access incentives under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.

On the buyback front, Iveco rises 0.1 percent after buying back EUR1.1 million worth of its own shares; UniCredit gains 0.6 percent after buybacks of EUR78.1 million; and Inwit marks a 1.0 percent rise after repurchasing EUR3 million worth of its own shares.

On the Mid-Cap, Piaggio & Co. -- in the green by 0.7 percent -- and Immsi -- in the green by 0.8 percent on the Small-Cap -- announced Monday that a special board meeting will be convened in connection with the appointment of a new chairman of the board.

Late last week, in fact, the two companies had to say goodbye to historic chairman Roberto Colaninno, who passed away at the age of 80.

Brembo--up 0.2 percent--reported that it had purchased 342,000 of its own ordinary shares for a total value of about EUR4.4 million.

Among small-cap companies, KME Group is not yet trading. The company announced Monday that its subsidiary KME SE had signed a letter of intent regarding the specialty products business led by Cunova GmbH, of which KME SE had sold 55 percent of the share capital to the German investment fund The Paragon Fund III GmbH & Co. geschlossene Investment KG in January 2022.

KME SE, Paragon and SDCL EDGE Acquisition Corporation, an acquisition special purpose vehicle with securities listed on the NYSE, where it has raised USD200 million, signed a non-binding letter of intent regarding a potential business combination between Cunova and SDCL EDGE.

The agreement provides that upon completion of the merger, a newly formed British holding company will have obtained a listing on the NYSE; Paragon will collect all cash from the sale; and KME SE will not receive cash but will convert the stake held in Cunova into the newly listed shares, further increasing its stake through the contribution of its aerospace business.

SS Lazio rises 2.0% after closing out some market transactions that overshadowed the league debut defeat at home to Lecce.

Bioera gives up 2.0% after announcing that, at the request of Golden Eagle Capital Advisors, five convertible bonds part of the first tranche of the convertible bond cum warrant underwritten by the investor were subject to conversion. The first tranche of the POC consisted of 50 convertible bonds with a total value of EUR500,000, and following the conversion, two bonds remain to be converted within the first tranche.

Among SMEs, Circle is not yet affected by trading. On Monday the company announced that it had signed a contract with yet another leading port in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The value of the order is about EUR135,000 and the duration of the assignment is nine months.

Innovatec gains 0.3 percent despite the fact that Modefinance, an Italian rating agency registered with ESMA, has confirmed a public 'B1+' rating to its creditworthiness. "This rating-equivalent, based on the current mapping, to the 'BBB+' rating of the main international rating agencies-represents a higher score than the minimum required to consider the company's issues investment grade," the company explained in a note.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed in the green by 0.5 percent at 32,010.26, the Hang Seng was in the green by 0.1 percent at 17,808.86, while the Shanghai Composite closed in the red by 1.3 percent at 3,078.40.

In New York on Tuesday, the Dow Jones closed down 0.5 percent to 34,288.83, the S&P finished 0.3 percent in the red to 4,387.55, while the Nasdaq gained 0.1 percent to 13,505.87.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0869 against USD1.0851 in Tuesday's closing European equities while the pound was worth USD1.2749 from USD1.2737 on Tuesday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD83.72 per barrel versus USD84.02 per barrel at Tuesday's close. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,931.95 an ounce from USD1,897.87 an ounce Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday's economic calendar, at 1030 CEST comes data on the UK's Services, Composite and Manufacturing PMIs.

At 1300 CEST, it's the turn of the U.S. mortgage report, while at 1400 CEST comes data on building permits. At 1630 CEST the Cushing inventory and EIA report.

At 1900 CEST an auction of bonds with a 20-year maturity is scheduled.

No particular announcements are expected among companies.

By Claudia Cavaliere, Alliance News reporter

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