(Alliance News) - The Mib opens lower meeting IG forecasts Thursday morning, with the oil sector trying to recover after closing lower last night. Meanwhile, overnight Fed meeting minutes made clear the bank wants to see "further evidence" to confirm inflation is under control.

"As a result, it is expected that the U.S. central bank will continue to raise interest rates, with aggressive policy continuing to hamper equities in 2023," as Victoria Scholar, Head of Investment at interactive investor, comments.

Thus, the FTSE Mib gives up 0.2 percent to 24,813.06

The FTSE 100 opens in the green 0.2 percent to 7,599.96, the Paris CAC 40 is down 0.5 percent to 6,741.10, and the Frankfurt DAX 40 is in the red 0.4 percent to 14,436.47.

In Asia, China saw a further decline in activity in the services sector in December, according to S&P Global data shown Thursday, while firms reported smaller declines in employment.

The Caixin China General Services PMI index rose to 48.0 in December from a six-month low of 46.7 in November, while the Caixin Composite PMI index rose to 48.3 in December from 47.0 in November, signaling a decline in business activity for the fourth consecutive month.

In Japan, consumer confidence rose in December, data from the Economic & Social Research Institute showed Thursday.

The consumer confidence index was 30.3 in the final month of the year, up 1.7 points from 28.6 in November.

Among Italy's minor listings, the Mid-Cap picks up 0.2 percent to 40,739.24, the Small-Cap is in fractional green at 28,302.28, and Italy Growth is above par at 9,400.83.

On the predominantly bearish main list of Piazza Affari, oils recover. Tenaris recovers after yesterday's close and takes the lead with 1.0%. Also good are Saipem, up 0.4%, and Eni in fractional green, while Erg picks up 0.4%.

Moncler gives up 0.1%, with Bernstein raising the targer price to EUR60.00 from EUR54.00.

Snam loses 0.6 percent, after announcing Tuesday that natural gas stocks as of December 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 storage of 6.7 billion cubic meters recorded at the end of December 2021.

On the Mid-Cap, Industrie De Nora leads the list with a 1.0 percent rise, while Juventus opens up 0.6 percent after rising 1.6 percent on the eve.

PharmaNutra gives up 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 opens 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, or 7.2 percent of its share capital.

Civitanavi Systems is not yet trading. 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 preparing the financial statements.

Among SMEs, Clabo opens up 10 percent, at the top, after announcing Wednesday that its 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 opens up 2.4 percent. It announced Monday that it has signed a new contract through the Log@Sea business network to supply advanced Gate Automation 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 3.0 percent. The company reported Wednesday that the CEO, Fabio de Concilio, purchased 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 an additional 14,327 shares in the company, at an average unit price of EUR1.9856, for a total value of EUR28,447.69.

In Asia, the Nikkei 225 closed in the green by 0.4 percent at 25,820.80, the Hang Seng was up 1.3 percent at 21,052.17, and the Shanghai Composite finished up 1.0 percent at 3,155.22.

In New York, on European night, the Dow closed up 0.4 percent to 33,269.77, the Nasdaq finished up 0.7 percent to 10,458.76 and the S&P 500 gave up 0.8 percent 3,852.97.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0623 versus USD1.0619 at Wednesday's close. In contrast, the pound is worth USD1.2020 from USD1.2048 last night.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD78.41 per barrel from USD78.34 per barrel last night. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,848.71 an ounce from USD1,865.60 an ounce Wednesday night.

On Thursday's economic calendar, at 1030 CET, for the UK comes the composite PMI and the services sector PMI.

Back in Italy, at 1100 CET, it's the turn of the consumer price index for December and, from the Eurozone, that of producer prices.

Overseas, at 1430 CET, come data on exports, imports and unemployment claims.

Among companies listed on Piazza Affari, no particular announcements are expected.

By Chiara Bruschi, Alliance News reporter

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