(Alliance News) - At mid-day on Friday, the major Eurozone stock markets continue trading in positive territory, with Piazza Affari doing best of all and touching 34,000.

The FTSE Mib is up 0.7 percent to 33,997.90, the Mid-Cap rises 0.6 percent to 47,568.11, the Small-Cap gains 1.2 percent to 28,100.34, and Italy Growth is up 0.3 percent to 7,819.61.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 is in fractional green, Paris' CAC 40 rises 0.4 percent and Frankfurt's DAX 40 gains 0.2 percent.

On the highest-capitalization list in Piazza Affari, at mid-session, Nexi does best of all by moving ahead 1.8%, in its second consecutive bullish session.

Good Saipem, in the green by 1.8 percent, with nearly 5.8 million shares traded.

Closing out the podium is STMicroelectronics, up 1.6 percent, with more than 1.1 million changed hands at the turnaround.

Banked stocks follow, with Banco BPM up 1.2%, UniCredit in the green by 1.1% as well as BPER Banca up, and Banca Popolare di Sondrio gaining 1.0%.

Eni rises 0.9% as it is about to turn on the World's most powerful supercomputer outside the US.

Costing more than EUR100 million, the new supercomputer, HPC6, contains nearly 14,000 Amd graphics processing units, high-power chips used to perform complex calculations and run artificial intelligence processes.

The supercomputer will be tasked with processing data to discover new oil and gas fields as well as performing calculations to promote clean energy.

Utilities continue to struggle, with Hera and Italgas down 0.3 percent, Terna down 0.5 percent and A2A down 0.1 percent.

At the bottom of the main basket at mid-day is Amplifon, which gives up 1.4 percent.

On the Mid-Cap, d'Amico does best of all with a 2.7% rise, in its second consecutive session in the green.

Rai Way is down 0.2 percent after its board of directors confirmed its willingness to consider a potential merger with EI Towers.

The company's note had come after a joint statement issued by RAI, F2i and MFEMediaForEurope--whose A shares rose 0.3 percent and B shares fell 0.1 percent--in which it was announced that a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding had been signed for the initiation of a possible merger of Rai Way and EI Towers.

Among the bearish, Caltagirone and Garofalo Health Care give up 1.5 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

Among smallcaps, Gas Plus rises 9.4 percent with over 450,000 shares traded.

Bestbe Holding is in the green by 8.6 percent at the halfway mark after announcing that it has co-opted Gabriele Minio as a member of the board of directors, also giving him the positions of chairman and chief executive officer of the company, after director Alberto Girotti's removal from the position of chairman.

TXT e-solutions rises 0.9 percent. Before the Christmas break, the company announced that TLogos, a company part of the TXT group since 2022, was awarded the EUR7.5 million ESA tender.

TLogos will support ESA for the five-year period 2025-2029, working with excellent international partners such as NASA.

doValue rises 2.4 percent after providing notice of the August 4, 2020 indenture it signed with the trustees and agents under which doValue issued its EUR265.0 million 5.00% Senior Secured Notes due 2025. Now, the company will provide early redemption of the same.

Among SMEs, Monnalisa is soaring 11 percent, consolidating its performance over the past thirty days, which is in the green by 69 percent.

It is followed by Pharmacosmo and Energy, up 8.5 percent each.

Yolo Group - in the red by 1.6 percent - announced that it has signed a contract to acquire a 51 percent stake in RCPolizza.it, a digital broker specializing in offering insurance products for SMEs.

WIIT - in the red by 1.6 percent - announced Friday that it had signed a renewal of the contracon one of Italy's world leaders in the luxury sector, a long-standing client of the group.

The agreement, worth a total of EUR11.4 million, provides for the extension of already active services through the integration of business continuity and cyber security solutions.

At the bottom, G Rent gave up 4.8 percent and recorded the steepest decline, albeit with only 1,500 shares changing hands.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed Friday up 1.8 percent to 40,281.16, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.1 percent to 3,400.14, and the Hang Seng ended in a tie at 20,090.46.

In New York at Thursday's close, the Dow gained 0.1 percent to 43,325.80, the Nasdaq lost 0.1 percent to 20,020.36 and the S&P 500 finished slightly lower at 6,037.59.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0416 against USD1.0403 in Monday's European equities close. The pound is worth USD1.2529 from USD1.2518 on Monday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD73.38 per barrel from USD72.08 per barrel at Monday's close. Gold trades at USD2,641.09 an ounce from USD2,612.92 an ounce on Monday evening.

Friday's macroeconomic calendar includes, at 1430 CET, from the US, the goods trade balance data while, at 1900 CET, it will be the turn of Baker Hughes drilling rigs.

At 2130 CET, as usual on Friday, the COT Report will be released.

By Antonio Di Giorgio, Alliance News senior reporter

Comments and questions to redazione@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2024 Alliance News IS Italian Service Ltd. All rights reserved.