(Alliance News) - More flat selling in Europe on Friday, with Old Continent's stock markets continuing to pay the price for the political tensions that are being breathed in France in particular.

Axel Rudolph, Senior Market Analyst at IG, said, "European equity indices continue their rout as the political infighting between the French parties becomes farcical. Fund outflows from Europe into emerging markets and U.S. mega stocks helped the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 hit new highs this week while the French CAC 40 fell about 5 percent."

The FTSE Mib closed Friday down 2.8 percent to 32,665.21, the Mid-Cap lost 1.5 percent to 46,390.02, the Small-Cap posted a 1.4 percent loss to 28,240.76 while Italy Growth gave up 0.3 percent to 8,048.51.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 closed down 0.2 percent, Paris' CAC 40 lost 2.9 percent while Frankfurt's DAX 40 gave up 1.4 percent.

On the blue chip list, the only two bullish performers were Amplifon -- up 1.2 percent -- and Inwit, which rose 0.3 percent instead after it made it known that it had formalized an agreement that includes an option right to purchase an exclusive controlling interest in 51 percent of the share capital of Boldyn Networks Smart City Roma, which won the tender for the Rome 5G project concession at the end of last year.

At the bottom are the banks, with UniCredit registering a 5.6 percent thud and BPER Banca following with a 4.0 percent drop.

Then the industrials fared badly, with Leonardo in the red by 5.3% and Iveco Group continuing to lose ground on the stock market, closing down 5.1%.

On the Mid-Cap, Intercos rises 1.6% to EUR15.68 after a 3.9% decline on the eve.

Sales on MFE, with class A shares giving up 2.2%. This share class closed the previous day's session with a 4.8% contraction. B shares, on the other hand, lost 5.3 percent.

Salvatore Ferragamo, on the other hand, gave up 3.4 percent to EUR8.6950 per share, with the stock depreciating about 28 percent since the beginning of the year.

Saras closed down 0.4 percent after Vitol received foreign subsidy approval from the European Commission.

In addition, the conditions precedent for the closing of Vitol's acquisition of 35 percent of Saras from the Moratti family came true. Therefore, the closing is expected to take place by the end of June at the latest.

As a result of the closing, Vitol, through a special purpose vehicle, will be required to launch a mandatory tender offer for the remaining Saras shares. More information on the takeover bid will be provided later.

On the smaller lists, GO internet closed at a breakeven after announcing Friday that it and its majority shareholder, BID-GO, have signed a shareholders' loan agreement for the provision by BID-GO to GO internet of an interest-bearing shareholders' loan of EUR700,000.

The loan is aimed at meeting the company's short-term economic and financial needs. The rate applied is 2%.

It should be recalled that BID-GO launched a takeover bid on GO internet last May 31 and is intermantly controlled by Tiscali, which in turn is controlled by Tessellis, which closed down 4.0%.

Bialetti Industrie lost 1.4, continuing the bearish trail that began three sessions earlier.

Among SMEs, Bellini Nautica rose 10 percent, taking the price to EUR2.80, after closing flat on the eve.

Eligo did not trade. The company reported results for 2023, a fiscal year that ended with a loss of EUR2.5 million, worsening from a EUR940,000 liability reported in 2022.

Sales revenue amounted to EUR1.9 million from EUR2.1 million in 2022. Adjusted Ebitda in 2023 is negative EUR1.9 million from negative EUR360,000. Ebit is minus EUR2.5 million from negative EUR890,000. The stock has %.

At the tail end, Giglio.com lost 6.0% to EUR1.87 per share, subject to profit taking after four bullish seute.

In New York, the Dow is down 0.5% to 38,464.22, the Nasdaq is down 0.1% to 17,642.06 while the S&P 500 gives up 0.3% to 5,417.22.

Among currencies, the euro changes hands at USD1.0694 from USD1.0764 yesterday in closing European equities while the pound is worth USD1.2678 from USD1.2755 Thursday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is trading at USD82.78 per barrel from USD82.81 per barrel at Thursday's close. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD2,331.03 an ounce from USD2,312.10 on Thursday evening.

Monday's macroeconomic calendar opens with the Rightmove index of UK house parts, due at 0101 CEST, followed by data on Japan's main machinery orders, at 0150 CEST.

The focus shifts to China, with house prices, industrial production, retail sales and unemployment rate while, in Europe, eyes on Italian inflation, coming at 1000 CEST, and the Eurogroup meeting, two hours later. From Spain, will come trade balance data, at 1000 CEST.

In the US, the focus will be on three- and six-month T-Note auctions and FOMC member Harker's speech.

Among the companies in the Piazza Affari, Zucchi's results are expected.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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