Indices in green; oil falls after OPEC+

(Alliance News) - On Monday, major European indexes are expected to rise, buoyed by the combination of Friday's U.S. inflation data, yesterday's OPEC+ decision to soften supply policy, and China's better-than-expected manufacturing PMI data.

Thus, according to IG futures, the FTSE Mib is expected to rise 1.0 percent or 342.5 points after closing in the green by 0.1 percent at 34,492.41,

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 is expected to open up 0.9 percent or 71.2 points, Frankfurt's DAX 40 is expected up 1.1 percent or 197.1 points while Paris' CAC 40 is in the green by 1.0 percent or 78.5 points.

OPEC+ then announced on Sunday that it will extend supply cuts through the third quarter, but added it will gradually return barrels to the market over the next 12 months.

"The fact that OPEC has a specific timeframe in mind for abandoning its policy of supply cuts is not supportive of oil bulls," comments Ipek Ozkardeskaya, Senior Analyst at Swissquote Bank. "The barrel of U.S. crude fell to USD76.50 at the weekly open before rebounding toward USD77 per barrel in the wake of a stronger-than-expected Chinese manufacturing PMI, with the Caixin index indicating the strongest expansion in almost two years.

In fact, the Caixin index for the manufacturing sector released Monday by S&P Global rose to 51.7 in May from 51.4 in April, exceeding estimates of 51.5.

As for central banks, the analyst continues, "hopefully the possibility of a Federal Reserve rate cut-or two-will help improve investor sentiment in the coming days as eyes turn to the Bank of Canada and the European Central Bank, which are preparing to announce their first rate cuts this week."

Among Italy's minor listings on Friday, the Mid-Cap gave up 0.2 percent to 47,724.79, the Small-Cap finished in the green 0.2 percent to 29,460.67, while Italy Growth advanced 0.3 percent to 8,192.54.

On the Mib, Pirelli ended the session on top with a 2.8 percent rise. The Chinese of Silk Road Fund exit Pirelli, with the fund holding its stake, about 9 percent. Tronchetti Provera, on the other hand, takes over 2.2 percent to just under 23 percent, a year after the government applied Golden Power on the group that works for, among other things, Defense.

BPER Banca -- in the red by 0.3 percent -- on Thursday announced the early closure to Dec. 31, 2024 of its 2022-2025 business plan in light of the early achievement of key economic and financial targets. Thus, the board of directors instructed the CEO to prepare a new 2024-2027 plan.

Italgas--up 1.0 percent--reported Thursday that the board of directors analyzed the group's expected operating and financial performance in 2024 and approved the guidance for the year. In detail, the guidance calls for adjusted revenues of around EUR1.8 billion, adjusted Ebitda of between EUR1.32-1.35 billion, and adjusted Ebit of around EUR800 million.

Intesa Sanpaolo -- in the red by 0.2 percent -- announced Friday that it had finalized the acquisition of Romanian First Bank SA from U.S.-based private investment fund JC Flowers & Co.

With the acquisition of First Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo's presence in Romania, where it has been active since 1996 through Intesa San Paolo Bank Romania, has more than doubled.

Telecom Italia ended at the bottom with a 2.8 percent drop. The European Commission on Thursday unconditionally approved under the EU Merger Regulation the acquisition by KKR & Co. Inc. of NetCo, which includes the primary and backbone fixed network businesses of Telecom Italia and FiberCop. FiberCop is a joint venture between TIM and KKR that includes TIM's secondary fixed network.

In the cadet segment, SOL finished on top with 4.4 percent, followed by BFF Bank and MFE's A shares, in the green by 3.2 and 2.9 percent.

Piovan closed up 2.5 percent, echoing Thursday's green close of 0.8 percent.

Banca Ifis - in the green by 1.4 percent - announced that Katia Mariotti, current head of the Npl division, has completed the three-year business plan of the same division, and will undertake a new professional assignment at AMCO - Asset Management Company as of August 3.

On the Small-Cap segment, the board of directors of the Fidia Group - in the red by 5.0 percent - approved a new budget for the year ending December 31, 2023, closing with a consolidated net result of negative EUR1.47 million, compared to negative EUR4.9 million in fiscal 2022.

Tessellis -- up 17 percent -- and GO internet announced Monday that the remaining conditions precedent under the terms of the investment agreement signed between Tessellis, OpNet and GO internet for the realization of Tessellis' previously announced investment transaction in GO internet had been fulfilled. The companies, therefore, agreed to proceed with the closing of the transaction.

The agreement stipulated that, Tessellis, through a possible corporate vehicle, would acquire a trade receivable owed by OpNet to GO Internet and subscribe to a reserved capital increase of GO Internet by offsetting this receivable, up to a maximum amount of approximately EUR3.4 million.

Among SMEs, Pattern closed in the green by 2.5 percent after announcing Thursday that it had signed a binding investment agreement to purchase, through its 80 percent subsidiary SMT Srl, 100 percent of Umbria Verde Mattioli Srl, an Umbrian company specializing in the production, processing and marketing of luxury knitwear.

The agreed price is EUR20.0 million and will be paid by SMT to the sellers in several tranches.

Softlab's board of directors approved the draft consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2023, closing with a loss of EUR400,000 compared to a profit of EUR3.2 million in the year 2022.

With reference to the capital increase under option resolved by the extraordinary shareholders' meeting on May 22 for a maximum amount of EUR30 million, expert.ai - in the red by 3.0 percent - announced Thursday that its shareholder Sofia Holding Srl has committed to subscribe its entire share under the future option offer for a maximum amount of about EUR1.2 million.

Sofia Holding holds 2.8 million expert.ai shares, representing about 4 percent of the share capital.

In Asia, the Nikkei is in the green 1.1 percent to 38,909.32, the Hang Seng gains 2.2 percent to 18,467.50, and the Shanghai Composite is in the red 0.5 percent to 3,070.44.

In New York on Friday, the Dow closed up 1.5 percent at 38,686.32, the Nasdaq finished fractionally in the red at 16,735.02 while the S&P 500 closed in the green 0.8 percent at 5,277.51.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0850 from USD1.0845 on Friday in European equities closing while the pound was worth USD1.2735 from USD1.2724 on Friday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude trades at USD80.87 per barrel from USD81.66 per barrel on Friday. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD2,318.94 an ounce from USD2,329.79 an ounce on Friday night.

Monday's macroeconomic calendar features the Italian manufacturing purchasing managers' index at 0945 CEST.

In the next ten minutes, the same PMI will also come out of France and Germany, while at 1000 CEST will come the Eurozone's and at 1030 CEST the UK's.

In the afternoon, at 1600 CEST, the manufacturing PMI will come from the US instead.

In Piazza Affari, Visibilia Editore's results are expected.

By Chiara Bruschi, Alliance News reporter

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