The Milan stock exchange closed in negative territory, in line with other international markets, where a climate of anticipation prevails before the speech by Jerome Powell, president of the Federal Reserve, at the Jackson Hole symposium which opens this evening. While the operators have been reassured by the recent news regarding the vaccination campaign against Covid, their primary concern remains the evolution of the economic recovery and that of monetary policy in the United States, a double topic that will be addressed by Powell in his intervention scheduled for tomorrow.
According to Intesa Sanpaolo, Powell could signal that “tapering is now close, while underlining the Fed’s commitment to be flexible”. The number one of the US central bank should not rattle off many details on the reduction in purchases, postponing the matter to the FOMC in September. In the meantime, the second estimate of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States for the second quarter will be released today.
In this context, the Ftse Mib index has moved below par from the very first trades, to close down by 0.76%, slipping below the 26,000 point threshold at 25,861.52 points. Among the stocks in the main basket, utilities continue to lose ground, with Terna down by 2.2%, Italgas down by 2.6% and Snam down by 1.9%. On the other hand, Buzzi Unicem (+ 1.3%), Tenaris (+ 0.9%) and Azimut (+ 0.8%) gained ground, moving against the trend.
Little move Atlantia (-0.2%) after informing that Abertis has reached an agreement for the sale of the entire stake, equal to 35%, of the French company A’lienor, concessionaire of the A65, Autoroute de Gascogne, held through its subsidiary SANEF. In the context of this transaction, SANEF will also sell the entire share capital (100%) of Sanef Aquitaine, A’lienor’s operator Operation & Maintenance, to A’lienor’s main shareholder, Eiffage. The total consideration for the two resignations for SANEF will be approximately 222 million euros.