(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari closed higher on Friday, on the cusp of a nonetheless negative week for European stock exchanges and with the bond market continuing to hold sway after the BTP-Bund spread surpassed 200 basis points.

Axel Rudolph, senior market analyst press IG, said, "The selloff in global equity indices resumed following much stronger-than-expected U.S. nonfarm payroll employment data, which confirmed that the labor market remains tight, putting pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise rates once again. The surge in 10- and 30-year bond yields, touching new 16-year highs at 5.05 percent for the latter, favored the dollar, which remains on track for its 12th consecutive week of increases."

"European stock indexes were initially dragged down by U.S. stock indexes as the U.S. economy created nearly twice as many jobs as expected in September, the most in eight months. However, they recovered toward the end of the session as shorts hedged ahead of the weekend. Next week, traders will focus on German industrial production, U.S. inflation and U.K. Gross Domestic Product."

The FTSE Mib closed up 1.2 percent to 27,810.61, the Mid-Cap was up 0.8 percent to 39,176.04, the Small-Cap was up 0.3 percent to 25,210.61, and Italy Growth finished slightly higher at 8,096.67.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 closed up 0.6 percent, Paris' CAC 40 finished up 0.8 percent and Frankfurt's DAX 40 rose 0.9 percent.

On the main list of the Italian stock exchange, banking stocks did well, with BPER Banca, UniCredit, Banco BPM, and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena doing best of all and picking up between 3.5% and 2.9%.

Enel advances 0.9 percent after announcing Thursday that it has approved the launch of a share buyback program for up to 4.2 million shares.

The potential outlay associated with the execution of the program is estimated at about EUR23.3 million.

Italgas gives up 0.1 percent after announcing Thursday that it has completed the corporate simplification related to its operational presence in Greece.

In fact, the merger by incorporation into DEDA - Public Gas Distribution Company SA - of EDA Thess and EDA Attikis, companies of Italgas Group's Depa Infrastructure group, was completed.

Saipem dropped 0.5 percent after announcing Thursday that it has signed - in consortium with National Petroleum Construction Company - a Letter of Award with ADNOC for a new contract for package 1 of the Hail and Ghasha Development Project in the United Arab Emirates. The value of Saipem's share is approximately USD4.1 billion.

FinecoBank closed up 0.8 percent after closing down 2.0 percent. It reported Thursday that net inflows for September were EUR446.7 million, down from EUR514.5 million in the same month a year earlier.

On the Mid-Cap, Maire Tecnimont is doing best of all with a 14 percent rise after reporting that Tecnimont, part of the Integrated E&C Solutions business unit, signed a letter of award with ADNOC on Thursday for the onshore treatment plant at the Hail and Ghasha project.

The total value of the EPC contract is about USD8.7 billion and the project is scheduled for completion during 2028.

Anima Holding rose 1.3 percent. The company reported that the group's net assets under management in September were negative EUR271 million.

At the end of September, total assets under management of the Anima group stood at about EUR184 billion.

On the small-cap side, bullish Greenthesis, which rose 8.8 percent. The company reported Thursday, Sept. 21, that it posted net revenues of EUR85.3 million in the first half of the year, up from EUR82.3 million in the first half of 2022.

Net income rose 2.6 percent to EUR8.6 million from EUR8.4 million in the same period last year.

Aeroporto Guglielmo Marconi Di Bologna gained 0.8 percent while algoWatt gave up 1.5 percent despite reporting that it secured a EUR255,000 grant for digital energy solution provider & system integrator activities on the ResilMesh project, funded under the Horizon Europe program.

In the ambitious context of holistic protection of critical infrastructures, the ResilMesh project will develop a set of innovative tools for the implementation of a Security Orchestration and Analytics Platform Architecture - SOAPA based on the concept of cybesecurity awareness to improve the resilience of digital infrastructures through the achievement of several objectives.

Real Estate Large Distribution SIIQ lost 1.0 percent. The company announced that it has resolved to issue a EUR400.0 million senior unsubordinated and nonconvertible bond.

In addition, the board decided to initiate an exchange offer of the bond issue maturing in November 2024 and an offer to repurchase the existing bonds for a cash amount on the condition that a certain amount from the repurchase be reinvested in the purchase of new bonds.

Bioera gave up 2.9 percent. On Thursday, the company learned from outside sources that it was the recipient of a petition for judicial liquidation undertaken by the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Milan.

The company informed in this regard "that it has instructed the lawyer Fabio Cesare of the firm McM avvocati in Milan to assist it in view of the next hearing - set for November 2 - to contest the groundlessness of the initiative," the company explained in a note.

Among SMEs, Renergetica rose 1.1 percent. On Thursday, the company announced that all members of the company's board of directors and board of statutory auditors have irrevocably resigned, effective on the date when the shareholders' meeting will be held to provide replacements.

The resignations were tendered in light of the fact that on August 4, Exacto, on the one hand, and CVA Eos, on the other, signed a contract for the sale by Exacto in favor of CVA Eos of a stake representing 60% of Renergetica's share capital and in view of the prospective change in Renergetica's shareholding structure that would occur in the event of the execution of the aforementioned acquisition transaction.

Casta Diva Group closed at a breakeven after the board of directors announced Thursday that it had reviewed the figure for value of production as of September 30, which came in at EUR71 million, up 28 percent from the same period last year, when it was EUR56 million.

In the third quarter, in particular, production value increased 49 percent over the same period in 2022, to EUR21 million versus EUR14 million, thanks to the continued strong demand for events that CDG is able to tap into.

Almawave lost 2.1 percent after reporting Thursday that subsidiary SisTer won the COMESA - Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa tender to enhance the Africa Information Highway public data platform, which the African Development Bank makes available to all African countries and regional and subregional organizations.

Spindox gained 1.2 percent. PMI announced the formal admission of the WICO - Water Quality Innovative Control by Artificial Intelligence - project by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy to funding under the PNRR.

Together with Archa, lead partner, CNR, Acque and Dielectrik, Spindox will develop an intelligent platform for monitoring water for human consumption. The system will target the Lower Valdarno aqueduct, which serves more than 800,000 citizens.

The total investment of the five partners is EUR5.9 million, matched by a total facility of EUR2.8 million, of which Spindox will receive about EUR1.1 million in grants.

In New York, the Dow is down 0.3 percent at 33,021.86, the Nasdaq is just above par at 13,222.32 and the S&P 500 is in the red 0.2 percent at 4,248.10.

Among currencies, the euro changes hands at USD1.0537 against USD1.0519 recorded at Thursday's European equities close while the pound is instead worth USD1.2191 from USD1.2150 on Thursday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD83.65 per barrel from USD85.74 per barrel at Thursday's close. Gold, meanwhile, trades at USD1,823.81 an ounce from USD1,819.87 an ounce on Thursday evening.

Monday's macroeconomic calendar opens with German industrial production at 0800 CEST and continues with the Sentix index of Eurozone investor confidence at 1030 CEST.

In the afternoon, space is given to French three-, six- and 12-month BT auctions and speeches by Jefferson and Logan of the Federal Reserve at 1500 CEST and 1850 CEST, respectively. Mann of the Bank of England, on the other hand, will close the day at 2200 CEST.

Of note, the Tokyo Stock Exchange will be closed for National Sports Day.

Among the companies in the Piazza Affari, however, the results of Nusco are expected.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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