(Alliance News) - The Mib index closed up above the 27,900-point level on Monday, after three consecutive sessions of losses, as investors focused on the outlook for interest rates ahead of the Federal Reserve's annual Jackson Hole symposium later this week. Meanwhile, market sentiment remains fragile amid lingering fears that the Fed will continue to tighten monetary policy, as well as China's apparent economic woes.
On Monday, China's central bank cut a key interest rate in an attempt to counter the post-Covid growth slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.
The one-year primary lending rate, which serves as the benchmark for business loans, was cut to 3.45 percent from 3.55 percent, the People's Bank of China said in a statement, while the five-year LPR, which is used to rate mortgages, was left unchanged at 4.2 percent.
Followed closely by markets, the two rates are now at record lows after previous declines in June. The decision is intended to encourage commercial banks to lend more and at more favorable rates.
Thus, the FTSE Mib closed up 0.8 percent to 27,986.92, Mid-Cap closed down 0.3 percent to 41,167.56, Small-Cap up 0.2 percent to 26,762.80 while Italy Growth closed down 0.1 percent to 8,845.79.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 gave up 0.1 percent, Paris' CAC 40 was up 0.5 percent, while Frankfurt's DAX 40 gained 0.1 percent.
On the blue chip list of Piazza Affari, leading the list was Saipem, which led the bullish performers with a 5.0 percent gain.
Banca Monte Paschi and BPER Banca followed, up 1.2% and 2.9% respectively.
Up goes Ferrari, up 2.3%, after Barclays raised its full-year earnings estimates for Ferrari on the heels of the luxury sports car maker's strong half-year results and a "constructive" call with Cavallino management. The investment bank is still reluctant to press the accelerator pedal on Ferrari's shares, preferring to wait for a "better entry point" and reiterating its "equal weight" recommendation. Barclays raised its price target for Ferrari, which has the ticker RACE in the stock market, to EUR300.00 from EUR265.00, reflecting a 13 percent increase.
For 2023, Barclays left its earnings forecast for Ferrari largely unchanged. Revenues were slightly revised downward to EUR5.82 billion from the previous estimate of EUR5.84 billion, and the estimate for net income was slightly increased to EUR1.18 billion from EUR1.17 billion. For 2024, the British bank raised its revenue forecast for the Milan-listed company by 0.9 percent to EUR6.33 billion from EUR6.27 billion, and its net income forecast got a larger increase of 4.4 percent to EUR1.36 billion from EUR1.31 billion.
In the red, in the small bearish group, Iveco closed down 1.8 percent in its third bearish session.
On the Mid-Cap, Juventus FC rose 2.8 percent on the day after its good league debut, which closed with a clear 3-0 win at home to Udinese.
Purchases also on Saras, which closed up 2.1 percent. Marble Bar Asset Management raised its short position to 0.8 percent from 0.31 percent. In addition, Voleon Capital Management also cut its short position to 0.48 percent from 0.56 percent.
Piaggio rose 0.9% after reporting that in connection with the appointment of a new chairman of the board, a special board meeting will be convened. Late last week, in fact, the company had to say goodbye to historic chairman Roberto Colaninno, who passed away at the age of 80. The same fate befell Immsi, another company led by Colaninno, which on the Small-Cap gained 7.5 percent.
At the bottom of the basket, Eurogroup Laminations closed the segment by giving up 5.6 percent.
Also going down was Zignago Vetro, which gave up 2.5 percent to EUR15.00 per share, on the heels of Friday night's 2.0 percent red.
On the Small-Cap, Digital Bros advanced 3.0% to EUR15.17 per share, following Friday night's 0.3% gain.
KME Group is in the green by 0.1 percent after reporting Monday that subsidiary KME SE has signed a letter of intent related to the specialty products business led by Cunova, of which KME SE, in January 2022, had sold a 55 percent stake to German investment fund The Paragon Fund III. KME SE, Paragon and SDCL EDGE Acquisition Corpn, an acquisition special purpose vehicle with securities listed on the NYSE, where it has raised USD200 million, have signed a non-binding letter of intent regarding a potential business combination between Cunova and SDCL EDGE.
The agreement provides that upon completion of the merger, a newly formed British holding company will have obtained a listing on the NYSE; Paragon will collect all the cash from the sale; and KME SE will not receive cash but will convert its stake in Cunova into the newly listed shares, further increasing its shareholding through the contribution of its aerospace business. Under the agreement, it is expected that upon closing of the business combination, KME SE will hold a majority stake of about 51 percent in the NYSE-listed combined entity's share capital, equal to about 46 percent fully diluted upon the eventual exercise of the private and public warrants issued by SDCL EDGE.
On the bottom sits Giglio Group, which gave up 3.2% to EUR0.6060 in profit taking after a 9.8% gain in the previous session.
Among SMEs, Convergenze brought home a 6.0% gain after two bearish sessions.
Altea Green Power gained 2.6 percent, rearing its head again after two sessions in the red.
At the bottom, Iervolino & Lady gave up 7.3%, bringing the price down to EUR0.96 in its third bearish session.
Deodato.Gallery, meanwhile, gave up 2.6 percent, on the heels of the previous session's 4.9 percent loss.
In New York, the Dow Jones is down 0.6 percent , the Nasdaq is rising 0.2 percent, while the S&P 500 is marking a 0.2 percent red.
Among currencies, the euro changes hands at USD1.0887 against USD1.0875 in Friday's European stock close while the pound is instead worth USD1.2735 from USD1.2738 on Friday evening.
Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD85.39 per barrel versus USD84.37 per barrel at Friday night's close. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,889.12 an ounce from USD1,892.00 an ounce Friday night.
On Tuesday's economic calendar, the BoJ's CPI data is due at 0700 CEST, while at 1000 CEST it will be the turn of the Eurozone current account balance.
At 1330 CEST, from the U.S., it is the turn of FOMC member Barkin's speech, then at 1600 CEST follows existing home sales, while at 2030 CEST there is the Fed's Bowman speech and weekly oil stocks.
No particular announcements are scheduled on the corporate calendar.
By Maurizio Carta, Alliance News reporter
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