Mib continues to rise; Leonardo leads gains

(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari continued higher Thursday after the arrival of services PMIs for the major Eurozone economies.

Italy's services sector moved closer to stagnation in December, registering only a slight decline in activity, improving from the previous month, as released by S&P Global on Thursday.

Italy's services PMI rose to 49.8 points in December from 49.5 in November, remaining just below the 50.0 mark that separates contraction from expansion in sector activity.

In contrast, the composite PMI-an average of manufacturing and services data-rose to 48.6 points in December from 48.1 in November.

It extends to the last month of 2023 the decline of the Eurozone economy, according to data collected by the Hamburg Commercial Bank survey and published by S&P Global Thursday morning, extending a contraction that has been observed since June.

Demand for Eurozone goods and services continues to weaken and employment levels again mark a decline, the second in nearly three years. In detail, the Eurozone's composite manufacturing PMI index equaled its November value in December, standing at 47.6.

On the services front, from 48.7 in November, December's Eurozone tertiary activity index rose marginally to 48.8, registering a modest contraction in Eurozone tertiary output, overall similar to the previous month. This is the fifth consecutive month that the sector has indicated an overall decline, with the latest decline being the weakest in the sequence.

The FTSE Mib is up 0.5 percent to 30,251.20, Mid-Cap is up 0.5 percent to 43,654.58, Small-Cap gains 0.2 percent to 27,883.60, and Italy Growth is up 0.1 percent to 8,286.24.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 is up 0.1 percent to 7,688.48, Paris' CAC 40 is up 0.3 percent to 7,434.87 and Frankfurt's DAX 40 gains 0.3 percent to 16,585.21.

On the main list in Piazza Affari, Leonardo is up 3.5 percent and leading the gainers, with nearly 2.1 million pieces changed hands in a few minutes.

On the other side of the list square Tenaris, down 0.5 percent after being downgraded to 'hold' from 'buy' by Jefferies, which also cut its target price to EUR18.00 from EUR19.00. One share of Tenaris today is worth EUR15.72.

Banks are still doing well, despite Montepaschi's broken reversal, now down 0.2 percent, while BPM and BPER continue to climb 1.2 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

On the Mid-Cap, d'Amico rises 4.3 percent the day after announcing that it bought 50,000 shares of Tamburi Investment Partners, which is up 0.4 percent.

The shares were purchased at an average unit price of EUR9.1971 for a total value of about EUR459,855.00.

The most traded stock is Saras, which is up 1.5 percent, with 1.6 million changed hands at the turnaround.

Among lower-capitalization companies, ePrice gives up 17 percent after making it known that it has received a request from Negma Group Investment to convert two bonds. The bonds are part of the first two tranches--from a total of 161 bonds--of the convertible bond issue underwritten by Negma, and the two in question have a total equivalent value of EUR20,000.

The price per share will be EUR0.0008 while 25.0 million shares will go to Negma after conversion. As a result, ePrice's share capital will increase to EUR8.3 million and the number of shares will be 235.0 million.

Acinque gives up 4.7 percent after finalizing the acquisition of 70 percent of Agesp Energia, a company that operates in the sale of electricity and gas and has been the operator of choice in the Busto Arsizio area for more than 60 years for its 39,300 customers. The company also operates district heating service and owns the dedicated network as well as the cogeneration plant serving it.

In 2022, Agesp Energia reported Ebitda of EUR3.3 million, with EUR4.5 million average annual Ebitda expected over the next five years, and net financial debt of EUR18.7 million.

algoWatt drop 0.5 percent. The smallcap on Wednesday announced that it has been awarded a grant of about EUR351,000 for Digital Energy Service Provider activities on the project "SIESTA - Secure Interactive Environments for SensiTive data Analytics," funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe program.

The SIESTA project, with a total duration of 36 months and EU funding of approximately EUR5.0 million, is coordinated by the Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.

Among Milan-listed SMEs, Circle is in a tie after reporting that its subsidiary Magellan Circle has been awarded the Horizon Europe Foremast project for a modal shift from road to maritime transport using prototype automated, small, flexible, zero-emission vessels.

Circle will receive EUR235,000 over 36 months. In addition to Magellan Circle, 15 partners from nine European countries are taking part in the initiative.

Illa is down 10 percent after the common shares were regrouped at the ratio of one new common share, no par value, for every 1,000 existing common shares, no par value, without reducing the total amount of share capital.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed Thursday down 0.5 percent to 33,288.29, the Shanghai Composite gave up 0.4 percent to 2,954.35, and the Hang Seng finished slightly lower at 16,645.98.

In New York, at Wednesday's close, the Dow fell 0.8 percent to 37,430.19, the Nasdaq gave up 1.2 percent to 14,592.21 and the S&P 500 lost 0.8 percent to 4,704.81.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0956 against USD1.0915 recorded at Wednesday's European stock close while the pound is worth USD1.2706 from USD1.2646 last night.

Brent crude is worth USD78.82 per barrel versus USD77.97 per barrel at Wednesday's close. Gold, meanwhile, trades at USD2,048.77 an ounce from USD2,034.61 an ounce last night.

Thursday's macroeconomic calendar calls for the German Federal Statistical Office to release the country's inflation data in the afternoon. Overseas, at 1430 CET, from the U.S. comes data on continuing unemployment claims and at 1545 CET, the U.S. purchasing managers' index and composite index.

Finally, at 1700 CET, it is the turn of crude oil stocks data.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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