A day with two faces for Piazza Affari. In the first part of the day, the inflation bogey affected the mood of all European stock exchanges with drops of up to over 2%. In the afternoon, purchases returned to prevail thanks also to the opening in a decisive recovery of Wall Street with the Dow Jones which had returned from the worst session since January.
The Ftse Mib index eventually closed at 24,486.01, up 0.14%. Enel recovered strongly at the end of the day (+ 1.3%), which yesterday had slipped below 8 euros thanks to the increase in bond yields and also in the morning had moved down. Among the other big names in Piazza Affari, the drops in Eni (-1.5%) and Tenaris (-2.3%) following the drop in oil should be noted.
A surge for Nexi (+ 3.3%) which revised upwards the 2021 guidance announced to the market in February. Assuming a recovery from Covid-19 in line with the progressive reopening plans envisaged in Italy, Nexi expects high single-digit / double-digit revenue growth. The previous prediction was midhigh single digit. In the first quarter of 2021, the Nexi group recorded revenues of € 258.6 million, up by 4.1% compared to a year earlier. EBITDA amounted to € 139.8 million, up 2% compared to Q1 2020 and 9.2% compared to Q1 2019.
Shore from the quarterly accounts also for Prysmian (+ 2.8%) which closed the first quarter of 2021 with a net profit of 76 million euros compared to 23 million in the corresponding period of 2020. The revenues of the Italian cable group mark +4, 6% to 2,810 million under the pressure of the Telecom segment (organic growth of 11.4%) and the Energy segment with + 3.4%. Adjusted Ebitda rose to 213 million compared to 197 million in the first quarter of 2020. The estimated 2021 adjusted Ebitda in the range of 870-940 million euros confirmed.
Mixed banks: -0.4% Intesa Sanpaolo, -1.9% Unicredit, while Banco BPM rose (+ 0.5%). Last night Moody’s revised the ratings and outlook of ten Italian banks, improving that of Intesa Sanpaolo, Banco BPM, Bper, Mediobanca, Credem, FCA Bank, Bnl and Cassa Centrale Banca from negative to stable.
Meanwhile, new press information arrives on the possible enhancement of the DTA incentive within the Sostegni decree. According to reports from Il Sole 24 Ore, a decision will come next week and the incentive could be increased from 2% to 3%. Unicredit is indicated as the number one suspect to start the domino and would be looking at both MPS and Banco BPM. The extension of the DTA would bring the tax benefit to around 7-8 billion euros.