The first session of the month of August and the week get off to a positive start for Piazza Affari, among the best lists of the Old Continent where a certain caution prevailed. In Milan, the Ftse Mib index sent on file the first session of the eighth up by 0.11% to 22,429 points, moving away from the highs of the day after the limp start on Wall Street (22,808.2 the intraday highs ). Meanwhile, today on the macro side, encouraging data arrived for the labor market in June, with rising employees and stable unemployment, while the new estimates of Italian GDP by the IMF are not so bright.
The recovery of the Italian economy from the decline due to the Covid pandemic has been very vigorous, employment has returned to pre-pandemic levels, but due to the war in Ukraine, the beautiful country will have to face new challenges. This is what we read in the report of the International Monetary Fund on Italy. According to the IMF, Italian growth is expected to slow from 6.6% in 2021 to 3% in 2022, with a further slowdown to 0.75% in 2023.
Among the individual stocks of the Milanese list, the pink jersey for Saipem (+ 4.2%) which is still riding the positive quarterly results released last week. The market is also looking at the rumors of Upstream, according to which up to four international contractors or consortia have submitted bids to QatarEnergy for a considerable offshore contract that provides for the further development of the Idd El-Shargi North Dome (ISND) offshore oil field. The ISND contract is likely to be worth more than $ 400 million and will include up to three offshore platforms. According to the newspaper, the contractors who have submitted offers also include Saipem with Rosetti Marino, PTSC with Telford Offshore, McDermott International and COOEC. “Given the partnership with Rosetti Marino, which has a well-established position in Qatar, we believe that Saipem is at the forefront of the ISND contract”, underline the analysts of Mediobanca Securities.
Positive pitch for the entire financial sector. Starting with Generali Assicurazioni (+ 2.06%) which tomorrow will announce the quarterly accounts before the opening of the markets. In the meantime, Equita has drawn up its estimates on the Leone di Trieste which foresee an operating profit of € 3.207 million and a net profit of € 1.402 million. Intesa Sanpaolo (+ 1.19%), Bper (+ 1.07%) and Poste (0.98%) also did well. Weakness, however, for Exor which closed the session at € 65.86 with a drop of 3.66%. The Agnelli family holding has formalized the decision to transfer the listing of its securities to Euronext in Amsterdam to be completed by mid-August. As a consequence, they point out from Equita, it will request delisting from Euronext in Milan which will come into force no earlier than 45 calendar days. Exor also announced a new 250 million buy-back tranche.