The last session in October with the lights off for Piazza Affari which, however, recovers at the end and the Ftse Mib closes at 26,875 points, down by only 0.05%. The weak quarterly figures from Apple and Amazon do not seem to have shaken the mood of the markets excessively. The day was punctuated by numerous macro data, with inflation biting more and more in Europe (+ 4.1% in October, 13-year highs) with growing fears of a tightening on rates by the ECB as early as 2022 .
For Italy, good indications from GDP, which continues to do better than the EU average also in the third quarter (+ 2.6% qoq compared to + 2.2% of GDP in the euro area) with the firm prospect of closing the 2021 with over + 6% growth. Paolo Pizzoli, senior economist of Ing, after the strong summer rebound expects the pace of growth to ease in the fourth quarter, remaining well within positive territory. ING estimates another 0.5% quarterly GDP increase in 4Q21 and updates the average GDP growth forecast to 6.2% (from 6%) for the whole of 2021.
In this scenario, among the big names in Piazza Affari there is the -1.06% of STM (back from the highs of over 20 years reached yesterday after the accounts) which pays for the weak feedback from Apple. The worst on the Ftse Mib were Banco BPM (-7.28%) and Bper (-6.44%) discounting the disappointment for the pro-M & A tax dowry that Mario Draghi’s budget law for 2022 has, as per expectations, extended, but also setting a maximum ceiling that penalizes transactions between medium-large banking players.
ENI is up today (+ 1.97% to 12.4 euros) after the accounts beyond expectations. Eni reported a net profit of 1.2 billion euro in the third quarter against the loss of 503 million in the same quarter of 2020. In the adjusted version, ie net of non-recurring items, the profit rose to 1.43 billion (+ 54% qoq). Adjusted net profit was better than expected, with Bloomberg consensus forecasting a profit of 1.08 billion.
Exor also did well (+ 1.22%) which entered into a new agreement with Covea for the sale of PartnerRe (a reinsurance company based in Bermuda wholly owned by Exor) for 9 billion dollars (approximately € 7.7 billion EUR).