(Alliance News) - The main European indexes met forecasts and opened the last trading session of the week at essentially flat, marked by few macro and corporate cues.

On the macroeconomic front, of note, consumer prices in Japan rose 3.3 percent year-on-year in June, with the pace of inflation accelerating from the 3.2 percent recorded in May, according to government data shown Friday.

The latest data, which met market expectations, anticipates the Bank of Japan's monetary policy meeting next week. Most market observers expect the central bank to keep its highly accommodative monetary easing policy unchanged.

The FTSE Mibis up slightly at 28,826.86, the Mid-Cap rises 0.1 percent to 42,269.15, the Small-Cap is flat at 26,680.63, and Italy Growth falls 0.1 percent to 9,077.12.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 is down 0.1 percent to 7,641.83, Paris' CAC 40 rises 0.1 percent to 7,391.51 and Frankfurt's DAX 40 gives up 0.5 percent to 16,121.87.

Recordati leads Piazza Affari blue chips up 3.3 percent the day after announcing that it has signed an agreement with GSK to market Avodart Combodart/Duodart in 21 countries, mainly in Europe, excluding those where GSK already has distribution agreements in place.

Avodart and Combodart/Duodart are products marketed in an oral formulation and indicated for the treatment of symptoms, moderate to severe, of benign prostatic hyperplasia and for reducing the risk of acute urinary retention and surgery in patients with moderate to severe symptoms of BPH.

Recordati will make an up-front payment of EUR245 million, and will begin to progressively report revenues and margins on a country-by-country basis following completion of the necessary transition activities.

Banks do well, with MPS and Intesa best in the sector, both up 0.6%, while STMicroelectronics still flexes, down 0.8%.

Worst of all is Leonardo, in the red by 1.2 percent.

On the Mid-Cap, Buzzi leads the bullish startup thanks to a gain of 2.6% while there are several stocks not affected by early trading.

Not among them is OVS, which drops 0.1 percent and reported yesterday that it purchased 236,084 of its own ordinary shares between July 13 and 19. The shares were taken over at an average unit price of EUR2.5194, for a total value of EUR594,780.96. As of today, the company holds 19.1 million treasury shares, or 6.6 percent of its share capital.

Badly, at the start, WIIT, down 3.3 percent, and Sesa, in the red by 1.5 percent. The latter reported Tuesday that it reported revenues of EUR2.90 billion as of April 30 from EUR2.38 billion a year earlier and up 21 percent.

In addition, the company disclosed that it ended the year with adjusted net income attributable to the group of EUR100.1 million, up 21% annually from EUR82.7 million as of April 30, 2022. Net income was EUR90.2 million from EUR78.6 million as of April 30, 2022. Ebitda was EUR209.4 million from EUR167.7 million, the year before.

Among small-cap companies, Tinexta drops 0.6 percent after finalizing the acquisition of 65 percent of Ascertia for EUR21.4 million.

Ascertia is a key player in the digital trust market, with headquarters in London and companies in the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, and was taken over through its subsidiary InfoCert.

Trevi Finanziaria Industriale gives up 0.5 percent after Anna Zanardi resigned as chairman of the board of directors due to unforeseen personal reasons. Zanardi, who does not hold shares in the company, will step down when Trevi names a successor.

Bialetti Industrie is on par after selling Aeternum to Illa--up 12 percent on Italy Growth--for EUR3.8 million. Aeternum generated net revenues of EUR11.7 million and Ebitda of EUR2.1 million in 2022.

Among SMEs, ISCC Fintech is not yet trading. The company announced Thursday that a preliminary agreement has been finalized for the purchase of a portfolio of unsecured NPL loans individually attributable to the secondary and financial markets, with a face value of about EUR6 million.

The stock consists of 1,509 positions, arising mainly from bank/financial origination contracts.

"The deal to purchase portfolios of non-performing loans consolidates ISCC Fintech's role in the NPL segment, increasing the company's portfolio to approximately EUR819.5 million, with a total of about 107,754 positions," commented ISCC Fintech CEO Gianluca De Carlo.

Portobello plummeted 11 percent after being notified of a preventive seizure order issued by the Milan Public Prosecutor's Office targeting sums of money - EUR9.8 million - on accounts held at credit institutions operating with the company.

The seizure originates from a tax audit conducted by the Milan Internal Revenue Service relating to the 2017-2020 tax periods, which ended with a tax audit report that was reported in the company's annual financial statements as of December 31, 2022, and with respect to which Portobello has been instituting an assessment procedure with the Internal Revenue Service for several months.

Labomar gives up 0.5 percent at the start. Yesterday, it reported that in the first half of the year consolidated revenues amounted to EUR53.4 million, up 28 percent from EUR41.8 million in the same period last year.

The performance was 52 percent achieved in international markets thanks to the contribution of all Labomar Group companies, which were able to seize every opportunity for growth, despite an environment that remains complex and sees general signs of a slowdown due to inflationary pressure and reduced purchasing power of end consumers.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed today down 0.6 percent to 32,304.25, the Shanghai Composite lost 0.1 percent to 3,167.74 while the Hang Seng rose 0.6 percent to 19,046.42.

In New York, the Dow Jones closed yesterday up 0.5 percent to 35,225.18, the Nasdaq lost 2.1 percent to 14,063.31 and the S&P 500 gave up 0.7 percent to 4,534.87.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.1137 against USD1.1140 on Thursday in closing European equities while the pound was instead worth USD1.2892 from USD1.2849 last night.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD80.33 per barrel versus USD78.97 per barrel at Thursday's close. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,970.67 an ounce from USD1,970.28 an ounce last night.

On Friday's macroeconomic calendar, the Baker Hughes report on drilling rigs will be released from the U.S. in the afternoon at 1900 CEST, and the COT Report will be released at 2130 CEST, as usual on Fridays.

On the corporate calendar, the accounts of Clabo, GPI and TrenDevice are expected.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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