The week ends under the banner of uncertainty for Piazza Affari, which fails to close above the 26,000 points threshold. A session in which prudence prevailed in Europe and also on Wall Street which opened uncertainly: the Evergrande dossier, at risk of default, still weighs on the mood of the operators. In this context, the Ftse Mib index showed a drop of 0.43% in the area of 25,968.84 points.
Among the securities of the main basket, the financial sector was highlighted and in particular Bper (+ 2.5%). Yesterday, the bank’s board of directors approved the launch of a process aimed at optimizing the Group’s workforce, through the hiring of 1,700 resources (over 2000 people including the departures envisaged by the agreement with Intesa Sanpaolo) and a entrances aimed at encouraging generational turnover. “Considering the costs incurred in previous personnel optimization operations by the bank (the 2019-21 business plan provided for 1,700 people leaving against provisions for incentive redundancies and the 2020 Solidarity Fund equal to 136 million), we estimate that preliminary that the impact of the initiative could weigh about 150-180 million on the 2021 profit (compared to our reported profit estimate of 693 million) “, underline the Equita analysts who maintain the hold recommendation and target price of 2, 2 euros on Bper. Mediobanca and Generali are also under observation, both up at the end of 0.2% and 1.1% respectively. The institute of Piazzetta Cuccia, formerly the main shareholder of Generali, announced yesterday, with the markets closed, that it had purchased a further stake of 4.42%, thus coming to hold 17.22% of the share capital of the Leone di Trieste. Saipem (+ 1%) and Pirelli (+ 0.9%) also did well.
DiaSorin (-3.6%) and the utility sector are under pressure, with Terna and Snam having sold around 3%. The issue of cutting electricity and gas bills remains hot, with the go-ahead from the Council of Ministers to the provision. The total value of the intervention was set at 3.4 billion with a reduction in system costs, but consumer associations rise up judging the intervention to be insufficient.