(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari reverses course and turns back up in mid-session Friday despite Istat data showing a drop in consumer and business confidence in October.

Consumer confidence fell to 101.6 in October from 105.4 in September while the business sentiment index dropped to 103.9 from 104.9 points in the previous month.

As for consumers, economic sentiment fell to 110.5 from 115.2, future sentiment fell to 107.7 from 113.2, current sentiment fell to 97.4 from 100.2 and personal sentiment fell to 98.6 from 102.2.

Among businesses, however, manufacturing is more optimistic, with sentiment rising to 96.0 from 96.4, but market services weighs in with a decline to 98.1 from 100.5 and the same with retail, down to 106.0 from 107.1. Confidence among manufacturers rises, to 163.8 from 160.9.

The FTSE Mib is up 0.4 percent to 27,609.50, Mid-Cap is up 0.5 percent to 37,729.51, Small-Cap gains 0.4 percent to 24,093.95 while Italy Growth gives up 0.1 percent to 7,608.92.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 is up 0.1 percent to 7,363.21, Paris' CAC 40 gives up 0.4 percent to 6,864.09 and Frankfurt's DAX 40 rises 0.5 percent to 14,808.08.

On the main list in Piazza Affari, Eni is up 0.7% after reporting Friday morning that the board of directors approved consolidated results for the third quarter and nine months, reporting a sharp decline in earnings but announcing an upward revision of estimates for Ebit and cash flow for the full year, along with an acceleration of the buyback program.

Campari drops 2.1 percent after sharing results for the first nine months of the year, with group profit for the nine months to September 30 of EUR473.8 million, down 2.0 percent from the same period a year earlier when it was EUR483.3 million.

Net sales were EUR2.20 billion, up 9.8% from EUR2.00 billion in the same period of 2022.

Saipem picks up 4.9% and takes the top spot. The company reported Wednesday that in the first nine months of the year it reported revenues of EUR8.36 billion, up 19 percent from EUR7.03 billion in the same period a year earlier.

As of September 30, adjusted Ebitda stood at EUR640 million, up 44% from EUR445 million in 2022.

Pirelli & C is up 0.3 percent after announcing Thursday that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Pirelli Tyre of the Pirelli Group, a global leader in tire production, have signed a joint venture agreement to build a tire factory in Saudi Arabia.

PIF will hold a 75 percent stake in the JV, while Pirelli will have the remaining 25 percent and will be a strategic and technology partner to support the development of the project, providing technical and commercial assistance.

STMicroelectronics is in the red by 2.0 percent after closing up 5.0 percent Thursday when it announced that it ended the third quarter of the year with net revenues at USD4.43 billion, up 2.4 percent from the previous quarter and 2.5 percent from the same period in 2022, when they were USD4.32 billion.

Quarterly net income is USD1.09 billion down slightly by 0.8 percent with USD1.10 billion in the same period 2022.

Stellantis - up 0.5 percent - and Leapmotor announced Thursday that Stellantis plans to invest about EUR1.5 billion to acquire roughly 20 percent of Leapmotor, in which Stellantis will become a major shareholder. The deal also includes the establishment of Leapmotor International, a 51-49-share joint venture led by Stellantis, with exclusive rights to export and sell as well as manufacture Leapmotor products outside the Chinese region.

UniCredit is up 1.9 percent. On Thursday, the bank received approval from the European Central Bank to execute a tranche of its share buyback program for up to EUR2.5 billion.

FinecoBank is up 2.3 percent, with S&P Global reaffirming its long-term 'BBB' rating with stable outlook and maintaining its short-term 'A-2' rating.

Intesa Sanpaolo is up 0.9 percent after it reported Wednesday evening that the extraordinary tax calculated on the increase in net interest income amounts to about EUR828 million for the group and about EUR797 million for the parent company.

The board of directors resolved that it will propose to the shareholders' meeting, when approving the annual financial statements, that an amount of about EUR1.99 billion, corresponding to 2.5 times the amount of the tax of about EUR797 million, be allocated to non-distributable reserves.

On the Mid-Cap, Fincantieri rises 2.2 percent. This week, the company signed with the Consortium coordinated by Naviris and bringing together the company, France's Naval Group the Spain's Navantia and other components from Greece, Denmark and Norway, all contract documents related to the Modular and Multirole Patrol Corvette for the implementation of the first phase of the European Patrol Corvette project.

The total value of this first phase is EUR87 million and is strongly supported by the European Commission through the European Defense Fund.

Maire Tecnimont rises 0.1 percent after reporting revenues of EUR3.08 billion in the first nine months of the year, up 23 percent from EUR2.51 billion in the same period last year.

As of Sept. 30, net income amounted to EUR88.6 million from EUR61.4 million a year earlier and up 44%

On the Small-Cap, Seri Industrial is in the red by 1.5 percent after reporting Thursday evening that the board of directors reviewed some data for the first nine months of the year, which closed with revenues at EUR127.3 million, down 10 percent from EUR140.7 million in the same period in 2022.

Elica gives up 2.3%. In the first nine months of the year, the company reported normalized net income of EUR11.7 million from EUR17.1 million in the same period last year, down 32 percent.

As of September 30, revenues amounted to EUR360.1 million from EUR419.0 in 2022 and down 14 percent.

Edison sees its savings shares rise 1.6 percent after reporting Friday that it closed the first nine months with revenues down to EUR14.10 billion from EUR22.84 billion in the same period a year earlier.

In contrast, Ebitda rose to EUR1.27 billion from EUR938 million a year earlier and Ebit improved to EUR763 million from EUR495 million. Net income from continuing operations increased to EUR544 million from EUR314 million while group net income rose to EUR486 million from EUR265 million a year earlier.

"Based on the results of the first nine months, albeit in a market environment that remains characterized by high economic and geopolitical uncertainty as well as persistent price volatility, the group revises its estimates for Ebitda growth from EUR1.6 billion to at least EUR1.8 billion as of Dec. 31, 2023 from EUR1.1 billion in 2022," the company said.

Among SMEs, Pharmacosmo gave up 1.4 percent after reporting Thursday night that it had EUR52.5 million in revenues for the first nine months of the year, up 14 percent from the same period a year earlier.

Still no trade on Allcore, which reported Thursday evening that it closed the first nine months of the year with consolidated group revenues of EUR30.1 million, up from EUR26.0 million over the same period 2022

Convergences gives up 4.6 percent after reporting Thursday that it closed the first nine months with revenues of about EUR16.5 million compared to EUR22.6 million in the same period of 2022

In Asia, the Nikkei closed up 1.3 percent at 30,991.69, the Hang Seng rose 2.1 percent to 17,398.73, and the Shanghai Composite gained 1.0 percent to 3,017.78.

In New York, the Dow closed Thursday in the red 0.8 percent to 32,784.30, the Nasdaq finished 1.8 percent lower at 2,595.61 and the S&P 500 gave up 1.2 percent to 4,137.23.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0564 against USD1.0542 recorded at Thursday's European equities close while the pound was worth USD1.2142 from USD1.2127 last night.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD90.17 per barrel from USD88.98 per barrel at yesterday's close. Gold, meanwhile, trades at USD1,987.19 an ounce from USD1,979.31 an ounce last night.

Friday's macroeconomic calendar includes the U.S. PCE in the afternoon at 1430 CEST, an hour and a half before Michigan's consumer confidence.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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