(Alliance News) - Major European stock exchanges trade mixed at the opening on Tuesday, with Frankfurt's DAX the only list down after December industrial production data.

Thus, the FTSE Mib is fractionally in the green at 27,030.32, the Mid-Cap is down 0.4 percent at 44,368.36, the Small-Cap is down 0.1 percent at 30,046.57, while Italy Growth is in the green 0.2 percent at 9,648.83.

In Europe, Paris' CAC 40 is on the parity threshold, London's FTSE 100 is in the green by 0.5 percent, while Frankfurt's DAX 40 is down 0.2 percent.

In macroeconomic news, by the way, industrial production in Germany fell sharply by 3.1 percent month-on-month in December 2022, down from an upwardly revised 0.4 percent increase in November and worse than market forecasts of a 0.7 percent drop.

This was the steepest decline in industrial production since March 2022.

Also in Europe, U.K. retail sales in January 2023 rose 3.9 percent on a like-for-like basis from a year ago, slowing from the 6.5 percent increase in December and lagging far behind inflation amid falling sales volumes.

Victoria Scholar, chief investment officer at interactive investor, commented, "January almost always tends to see a seasonal slowdown in retail sales. With double-digit inflation, rising mortgage rates, low consumer confidence and sluggish growth, retailers find themselves in a difficult situation as they desperately try to attract customers through offers and discounts that put further pressure on margins. Although food and beverage sales have remained robust, this has been driven by price increases fueled by inflation rather than higher volumes, with shoppers switching from labeled to own-label ranges to reduce spending."

"However, it was not all bad: with restrictions on food, easing gasoline prices, and the possibility that the British economy will manage to avoid recession, the shoppers' confidence index reached its highest in a year."

On the Mib, they do best of all the oil and energy sector dragging the list, with Saipem rising 2.8 percent, Italgas trading in the green 2.3 percent, Terna up 2.1 percent and Tenaris pushing with 2.0 percent assets.

Telecom Italia also trades in the green, up 0.2% after recalling, at Consob's request, that in relation to press reports about the non-binding offer on TIM's fixed infrastructure submitted by KKR, unless otherwise agreed between the parties, the offer has a duration of 4 weeks from the date of sending - last Feb. 1. TIM's board of directors will meet on February 24 to discuss it and make a decision, thus before the offer's duration deadline.

CNH Industrial -- in the green by 0.4 percent -- announced on Monday that it had begun the second USD50 million tranche of the buyback program announced last July 29, worth a total of USD300 million.

The rest of the Agnelli Galaxy on the list sees Iveco Group in the red by 0.2%, Ferrari up 0.1% and Stellantis up 0.3%.

On the Mid-Cap, Sesa trades in the red by 0.2 percent after announcing Tuesday that it has acquired through its subsidiary Var Group a majority stake in Assist Informatica, thus consolidating its expertise in software solutions for the agribusiness segment.

Assist Informatica, headquartered in Bastia Umbra and employing more than 20 human resources, specializes in the development of proprietary software solutions for the agribusiness supply chain, with a customer set of SME clients operating nationwide.

Anima Holding trades in the red by 2.0 percent. The company reported Monday that it ended 2022 with a net profit of EUR120.8 million, down 49 percent from EUR238.7 million in 2021.

The 2021 figure, however, also benefited from a positive effect of more than EUR24 million from the franking of goodwill.

Group net inflows in 2022 were EUR1.6 billion positive from EUR2.4 billion in the previous year, including Branch I insurance proxies; total assets under management at the end of December 2022 amounted to more than EUR177 billion.

Rising net income without taking into account the benefit of badwill from the year before, dividend up by 10 percent, and strong balance sheet data. That, in a nutshell, is the 2022 of Credito Emiliano -- in the red by 2.4 percent -- with the bank announcing on Monday a dividend of EUR0.33 per share from EUR0.30 a year earlier.

The dividend payout is thus EUR112.3 million, with the coupon worth 4.2 percent of the bank's current share valuation.

The good performance of the oil sector also continues on the Mid, which sees Saras in the green by 1.3 percent.

On the Small-Cap, algoWatt - up 4.7 percent - announced Tuesday that it has been awarded a grant of about EUR500,000 for activities as a digital energy solution provider and system integrator on the Masterpiece project - Multidisciplinary approaches and software technologies for engagement, recruitment and participation in innovative energy communities in Europe - funded under the Horizon Europe program

Risanamento - in the red by 1.0 percent - reported Thursday on its preliminary results for 2022, whereby the company reported a net loss of EUR53.8 million from EUR24.9 million in the same period last year.

On a positive note, however, Trevi Finanziaria Industriale rose 4.0 percent, in its fourth bullish session.

Among SMEs, Medica is still not affected by trading the day after reporting that it closed 2022 with preliminary consolidated sales of around EUR50.9 million, up significantly from EUR43.8 million achieved in 2021.

Nusco gives up 0.4 percent after announcing Monday that consolidated preliminary revenues as of Dec. 31, 2022 are approximately EUR50.8 million.

Growens trades in the green by 1.5 percent. On Friday, the board of directors approved the signing of a binding agreement to sell Growens' MailUp business unit and its holdings in Contactlab, Acumbamail, MailUp Nordics and its subsidiary Globase International to TeamSystem for a total consideration of EUR70 million on a cash/debt free basis.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed fractionally in the red at 27,685.47, the Hang Seng rallied 0.4 percent to 21,298.70, and the Shanghai Composite closed in the green by 0.3 percent at 3,248.09.

In New York on Monday, the Dow Jones closed 0.1% in the red at 33,891.02, the S&P gave up 0.6% to 4,111.08 while the Nasdaq lost 1.0% to 11,887.45.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0722 versus USD1.0724 at Monday's close. In contrast, the pound is worth USD1.2021 from USD1.2011 on Monday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD82.58 per barrel versus USD80.36 per barrel on Monday evening. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,888.95 an ounce from USD1,868.44 an ounce at Monday's close.

On Tuesday's macroeconomic calendar, at 1430 CET, space is given to the US trade balance while at 1840 CET a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is expected. At 2230 CET, eyes on weekly oil stocks.

Among companies, results from Banca Monte dei Paschi, Popolare di Sondrio, Banco BPM and FinecoBank are due.

By Claudia Cavaliere, Alliance News reporter

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