Piazza Affari opened on a positive note, with widespread buying particularly focused on the banking and asset management sectors.

This morning in Tokyo, the Nikkei index surpassed the 58,000-point mark for the first time, buoyed by quarterly earnings and the decisive victory of Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party in last Sunday's national elections.

In the United States, meanwhile, investors are assessing yesterday's monthly employment data, which reinforce expectations that U.S. interest rates will remain at current levels at least until the second half of the year.

At 14:30, weekly jobless claims data are due, with expectations set at 222,000.

Around 9:40 a.m., the Ftse Mib was up 0.70%.

Banks saw a strong rebound, with the sector index rising 1.6%. Major players UNICREDIT and INTESA both gained more than 1.5%. However, the most significant recovery came from asset management stocks, which had been penalized yesterday by concerns that the use of artificial intelligence—especially following the launch of new tools by operators like Altruist—could have a competitive impact on the financial advisory world. BANCA GENERALI stood out in particular, jumping 5.1% after losing 7.6% yesterday. Following better-than-expected results, several brokers revised their ratings and price targets: Kepler Cheuvreux upgraded its recommendation to 'buy' from 'hold' and raised the target price to 61.5 euros from 60, while Barclays increased its target to 73.5 from 72.2 euros.

BANCA MEDIOLANUM, FINECOBANK, and AZIMUT also performed well, each rising around 2% after yesterday's heavy sell-off.

FINCANTIERI (+3.9%) was in demand as investors positioned themselves ahead of the capital markets day and the 2030 plan presentation scheduled for this morning. Another defense sector leader, LEONARDO, also stood out, rising 0.8%.

In the luxury sector, which saw strong buying across Europe thanks to Hermes' solid results, BRUNELLO CUCINELLI climbed 3.4%. The luxury company announced yesterday that its board meeting to approve the financial statements, initially set for March 12, has been brought forward to February 18. Another sector stock, SALVATORE FERRAGAMO, also rallied, up 2.64%. The company denied media rumors of a possible change in creative direction. Morgan Stanley resumed coverage with an 'underweight' rating and a price target of 5.5 euros.

Profit-taking hit TIM, which slipped 1.5% after recently reaching multi-year highs. In a note ahead of the preliminary 2025 results to be released on May 24 and the updated 2026 guidance, Intermonte confirmed its 'buy' rating on the stock and raised the price target from 0.68 euros to 0.74 euros.

Finally, utilities were sold off, with A2A down 2.2% and ENEL losing 0.9%.

(Giancarlo Navach, editing by Andrea Mandalà)