Banks send Piazza Affari soaring to its highest level since 2007

The climate of economic uncertainty, with the trade war on one side and the geopolitical situation on the other, is creating indecision on the markets. European stock markets are ending the day in disarray, weighed down by Wall Street's bad mood after the US consumer confidence data fell short of expectations. Bitcoin is also paying the price, sliding below 90,000 dollars, its lowest level in three months. The Milan stock exchange is doing moderately well, with the FTSE MIB index rising 0.63% to 38,714 points, after having touched 39,000 points, its highest level since November 2007. Madrid (+0.8%) and London (+0.1%) are also having a positive day. Paris is down (-0.4%), Frankfurt is little moved (-0.07%). In the Old Continent, investors are focusing their attention on Germany, where talks are underway between political forces to form a new government.

A scenario that pushes the euro higher against the dollar while government bond yields are falling. The latter are weighed down by fears of a pause by the ECB on the interest rate cut. The Fed also seems to be in a wait-and-see position, looking at the trend of inflation before acting on monetary policy. On the government bonds front, the spread between BTPs and Bunds, meanwhile, ended down at 113 points, with the yield of the Italian ten-year at 3.58% and the German one at 2.45%.

At Piazza Affari, a report by Morgan Stanley has given wings to the banks. The American investment bank has expressed appreciation for the Italian credit institutions for the financial results, recently presented, but also for the consolidation operations announced in recent months. The analysts have updated the estimates for the Italian banks "which we cover taking into account the efforts of the management" in maintaining profitability through a "series of levers, including the generation of commissions, cost efficiency and the solidity of the quality of the assets". An evaluation that has led to a leap in Mps (+5.3% to 6.96 euros), struggling with the offer on Mediobanca (+1.5% to 16.82 euros). Unicredit advances (+2.8% to 49.33 euros) with the operation on Banco Bpm (+2.1% to 9.37 euros). Among the banks involved in the risk, also rising are Popolare di Sondrio (+2.7% to 10.63 euros), the recipient of the takeover bid by Bper (+2% to 7.10 euros), and Unipol (+1.4%), a shareholder of both.

Intesa also grows (+1.8 to 4.62 euros). Morgan Stanley continues to believe that the main catalysts for Unicredit and Banco Bpm are "concentrating on M&A, on which there are still uncertainties about the timing and prices of the offers".