(Alliance News) - The Mib remains below par, mid-day Thursday, along with the other major European exchanges except London, following the release of inflation data for the Eurozone and major European countries, including Italy.

In our country, inflation cooled slightly in December, remaining close to recent record levels, Istat reported Thursday.

Italy's consumer prices rose 11.6 percent year-on-year in December after rising 11.8 percent in November, coming in line with market estimates.

On average, consumer prices will grow 8.1 percent in 2022 from 1.9 percent in 2021. Net of energy and fresh food, consumer prices grow 3.8 percent from the 0.8 percent increase in the previous year, and net of energy alone, 4.1 percent from the 0.8 percent increase in 2021.

Thus, the FTSE Mib gives up 0.1 percent to 24,848.85.

The FTSE 100 remains in green and rises 0.4 percent to 7,619.58, Paris' CAC 40 falls 0.3 percent to 6,756.14, and Frankfurt's DAX 40 is in the red 0.1 percent to 14,471.05.

Eurozone producer price growth slowed considerably in November, Eurostat data showed Thursday.

Eurozone producer prices rose just over 27 percent annually in November, curbing growth after October's 31 percent increase. The November figure is lower than the consensus cited by FXStreet, which had forecast growth of just 28 percent.

On a monthly basis, producer prices fell 0.9 percent in November compared to October, when they were down 3.0 percent.

Among Italy's minor listings, the Mid-Cap rallied 0.3% to 40,792.84, the Small-Cap was in the green 0.1% to 28,317.30, and Italy Growth was in the fractional red at 9,395.37.

On the predominantly bearish main list in Piazza Affari, oils recover as Brent rises and slowly approaches USD80 a barrel. Tenaris remains top with 1.4 percent. Also good are Saipem, up 0.8 percent, and Eni in the green by 0.3 percent.

Erg gives up 0.6 percent and Snam loses 0.9 percent, after announcing Tuesday that natural gas stocks as of Dec. 31, 2022 in the storage facilities of its subsidiary Stogit amount to 9.3 billion cubic meters, plus 4.5 billion cubic meters of strategic storage.

This is about 2.6 billion more than the stock of 6.7 billion cubic meters recorded at the end of December 2021.

Stellantis, up 0.5 percent, said Thursday that it will "significantly expand" its partnership with Archer Aviation -- a California-based company that markets electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft -- after joining forces to produce Archer's Midnight eVTOL aircraft.

Stellantis has also agreed to provide up to USD150 million in equity for potential pickup by Archer, at its discretion, in 2023 and 2024.

Moncler, meanwhile, gives up 0.5 percent, with Bernstein raising the target price to EUR60.00 from EUR54.00.

On the Mid-Cap, Industrie De Nora remains in the upper quarters, up 2.2 percent, but at the top is Piaggio up 2.4 percent on par with Saras, which like the other oils on the Mib is following a bullish trend.

Juventus, however, reverses course and after opening among the best, now gives up 1.2%.

PharmaNutra loses 0.8 percent after rallying 2.4 percent at the close. The company announced the signing of three new international commercial agreements for the distribution of products from the SiderAL® and Cetilar® lines in the Indonesian Republic, Kuwait, and Mexico.

With the signing of these new contracts, the PharmaNutra Group currently has 47 distributors in 70 countries across Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Webuild gives up 0.2 percent. On Monday, it announced that in the week of Dec. 28 and Dec. 30, 2022, inclusive, it purchased 40,500 of its own ordinary shares.

The shares were taken over at an average price of EUR1.3837 per share for a total value of EUR56,040.74.

On the Small-Cap, BasicNet remains up 1.8 percent. The company reported Friday that it purchased 16,500 of its own ordinary shares between Dec. 27 and Dec. 30.

The shares were taken over at an average unit price of EUR5.4810, for a total value of EUR90,440.50.

To date, the company holds 3.9 million treasury shares, accounting for 7.2 percent of its share capital.

Civitanavi Systems dale 1.8 percent. The company announced that it has signed a ruling agreement with the Internal Revenue Service that will allow the company to have access to the Patent Box tax benefit for intellectual property for patents and know-how.

The tax benefit for the five-year period 2017-2021 will be accounted for in the fiscal year 2022 and the quantification will take place when the financial statements are prepared.

Among SMEs, Clabo flies 17 percent and is capped for excessive volatility, after announcing on Wednesday that U.S. subsidiary Howard McCray has concluded two trade agreements worth a total of USD750,000, or EUR710,000, with 2 retail chains operating within the HoReCa channel.

The two trade agreements refer to deliveries to be made in the year 2023 regarding products in the "Dairy - Multipurpose" line.

Circle is trading up 1.1 percent. It announced Monday that it has signed a new contract through the Log@Sea business network to supply Gate Automation's advanced solutions to a leading Tyrrhenian multipurpose terminal.

"The order, the value of which exceeds EUR145,000, involves the implementation of a complete project of specialized hardware components and Milos software for the management of gate access control procedures for vehicles and Intermodal Transport Units. The topical moment and market confidence in the solutions behind our Connect 4 Agile Growth plan are confirmed," explained President and CEO, Luca Abatello.

Pharmacosmo is up 5.5 percent. The company reported Wednesday that CEO Fabio de Concilio bought 12,297 shares of the company's common stock.

The shares were taken over at an average price per share of EUR1.8312, for a total value of EUR22,518.26.

In other transactions, de Concilio took over another 14,327 shares in the company, at an average unit price of EUR1.9856, for a total equivalent of EUR28,447.69.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0614 against USD1.0619 at Wednesday's close. In contrast, the pound is worth USD1.2027 from USD1.2048 last night.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD79.57 per barrel from USD78.34 per barrel last night. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,850.00 an ounce from USD1,865.60 an ounce Wednesday night.

On Thursday's economic calendar, at 1430 CET from the US comes data on exports, imports, and unemployment claims.

By Chiara Bruschi, Alliance News reporter

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