Hit and run from an altitude of 25 thousand points for Piazza Affari, which squanders a large part of the earnings in the last few hours. The Ftse Mib closed + 0.63% at 24.712 points after reaching a peak of 25.093 points in the middle of the session.
Investors look forward to the new round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia scheduled for tomorrow in Turkey. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated that his country is ready to discuss the adoption of neutral status as part of a peace agreement with Russia. The announcement of the Shanghai lockdown for nine days is also holding the spot today. The city of 26 million people will go into lockdown in two phases to stop the increase in cases of Covid-19: half of the city will be closed between today and 1 April. The other half will be closed from 1st to 5th April.
Top performer of the day today on the Ftse Mib was the title Saipem (+ 6.69% to € 1.145) in the wake of Bloomberg rumor that the oil services company is in exclusive talks with KCA Deutag in the UK to sell onshore drilling operations worth € 500 million. Last Friday Saipem had slipped on the stock market after the announcement of the 2 billion euro capital increase in an attempt to restore its finances after the new profit warning launched at the end of January. Other oil stocks, on the other hand, fell (-1.43% ENI, -2.28% Tenaris) in the wake of the decline in oil, which pays the fears on demand in the wake of the lockdown in Shanghai.
The magic moment of Generali (+ 3.71%) which reaches its highest levels since 2008, exceeding 20 euros. The indications emerged from the ‘Awakening the lion’ program by Caltagirone continue to hold their own. The alternative program for the Trieste insurance group has very ambitious targets, envisaging an average annual growth (CAGR) of profit of more than 14% with a contribution from M&A of 3% -4%. A growth that is higher than both that envisaged by Generali’s current plan (+ 6 / + 8%) and the growth objectives of the main competitors in the insurance sector. Meanwhile, the governance dispute has seen a new round with the board of Generali which has decided to terminate with immediate effect the employment relationship with Luciano Cirinà, the CEO candidate on the Caltagirone list that is opposed to that of the outgoing board.
Between the individual stories continues the rise of TIM (+ 1.38% to € 0.3369), already a positive player in the last eighth. The Italian telecommunications company specified that on the evening of March 25 it received a non-binding proposal from the CVC fund, concerning the purchase of a minority shareholding in a company, to be established in the event of completion of the transaction, in which they would be included the activities of Tim’s Enterprise division (ie connectivity and ICT services) as well as those of Noovle, Olivetti, Telsy and Trust Technologies “. Meanwhile, discussions continue with Kkr in relation to the non-binding expression of interest sent on November 17, 2021.
Purchases also on Buzzi (+ 1.63%) which reported a 2021 net profit of 542 million euros (-3%) compared to the 451 million expected. The 2022 guidance indicates the EBITDA down by about 10% for Russia, Ukraine and Italy.