(Alliance News) - Europe's major stock markets closed lower on Friday, with banking stocks in Piazza Affari dragged down by the turmoil overseas, where the plunge in Silicon Valley Bank's share price caused share sell-offs across the sector at today's reopening.

Thus, the FTSE Mib closed 1.6 percent in the red to 27,281.96, the Mid-Cap gave up 1.5 percent to 43,748.23, the Small-Cap lost 1.2 percent to 30,165.49, and Italy Growth ended down 0.5 percent to 9,436.97.

In Europe, Paris' CAC 40 is in the red by 1.3 percent, London's FTSE 100 is down 1.7 percent, and Frankfurt's DAX 40 gives up 1.3 percent.

In addition, the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 3.6 percent in February, up from the 50-year low of 3.4 percent seen in January and above market expectations of 3.4 percent.

The U.S. economy unexpectedly created 311,000 jobs in February, well above market forecasts of 205,000, and after a downward revision of 504,000 in January.

"U.S. markets bore the brunt of today's selling, but the big losers were the European indices, which posted losses of around 2 percent," comments IG's Chris Beauchamp. "Banks and other financials led the decline, mirroring the moves seen on Wall Street yesterday. Although this knee-jerk response appears to be over, it is certainly not wise to hamper the avalanche of selling, which seems unlikely to end soon."

Powell's testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday before Congress had pushed toward a 50pb increase "but lower earnings data and a rising unemployment rate have seen forecasts return to 25pb. Volatility is on the rise again, and although equities have made an attempt to rebound, next week's CPI figure means investors still cannot sleep soundly," the analyst concluded.

On the Mib, precisely, banks have it the worst, with FinecoBank tail-end in the red by 4.6 percent, BPER Banca down 4.5 percent, and Banca Mediolanum and UniCredit down 3.5 percent and 3.1 percent.

Buzzi Unicem is among the few in the green with 3.0 percent, after issuing a press release on Friday mentioning the "smear campaign undertaken since the beginning of February that aims to undermine the company's reputation," as the company explains.

"The contents spread by the organizations state that Buzzi Unicem is somehow involved in the activities carried out by the subsidiary SLK Cement, a current company in Russia, tending to support the war of aggression against Ukraine."

Leonardo also did well, advancing 2.9% after the accounts. The company reported a net profit of EUR932.0 million in 2022, up 59% from EUR687.0 million in 2021. The board also announced that it will propose a dividend in line with the previous year of EUR0.14 per share.

Italgas advances 1.7 percent after approving consolidated results as of December 31, 2022 on Thursday, reporting revenues of EUR1.54 billion up 12 percent from EUR1.37 billion in 2021.

In addition, the board resolved to propose to the shareholders' meeting, the distribution of a dividend of EUR0.317 per share, up 7.5 percent from 2021, when it was EUR0.295.

CNH Industrial, however, is on the other side of the list and closes 3.9 percent in the red. It announced Thursday that between Feb. 28 and March 2 it bought 443,313 of its own shares.

The shares were taken over at an average price of about EUR15.45 for a total of EUR7.2 million.

Prysmian also hurt, ending down 4.3 percent after receiving a 'buy' recommendation from Kepler Cheuvreux and a target price raised to EUR45.00 from EUR38.00. On Thursday the company approved results as of December 31, 2022 reporting a jump in net income to EUR509.0 million from EUR310.0 a year earlier.

On the Mid-Cap, Datalogic's consolidated revenues rose 9.5 percent to EUR654.6 million in 2022 from EUR597.8 million achieved as of Dec. 31, 2021, the company announced Thursday; at constant exchange rates, revenues are up 4.4 percent. The stock closes 2.3 percent in the red.

Safilo Group -- in the red by 3.2 percent -- announced Thursday that it has approved draft financial statements as of Dec. 31, 2022, reporting a major improvement in all key economic indicators and adjusted group net income of EUR58.3 million compared to EUR27.4 million in the same period last year.

Net sales in the period amounted to EUR1.07 billion, up 11 percent from EUR969.6 million as of December 31, 2021.

All major indicators in Danieli & C's half-year income statement--green by 0.6 percent is among the few bullish ones--improved at the end of the first half of the company's fiscal year, which ends on the last day of June.

Operating revenues grew 20 percent to EUR1.87 billion at the end of December 2022 from EUR1.56 billion in the same period last year.

On the Small-Cap, Tesmec -- up 0.1 percent -- approved its draft operating and consolidated 2022 budget on Friday, reporting revenues of EUR245.2 million up from EUR194.3 million in 2021.

Net income amounted to EUR7.9 million up sharply from the EUR1.2 million reported in 2021.

Digital Bros ranks at the bottom with a 9.2 percent decline after approving its half-year financial report as of Dec. 31, 2022 on Thursday, reporting revenues up 8.1 percent to EUR59.8 million from EUR55.3 million in the same period last year.

Net income for the period amounted to EUR11.0 million from EUR10.4 million in the first six months of fiscal 2021-2022.

TXT e-solutions also hurt, in the red by 5.2 percent. The company announced Thursday that it has bought back 18,500 shares between Feb. 20 and Feb. 28, 2023.5fq2

The shares were taken over at an average price of EUR18.00 for a total value of EUR333,163.82.

Among SMEs, High Quality food flies well, closing up 25 percent.

Pharmacosmo gives up 8.4 percent. Thursday evening it announced that it has signed a binding agreement to acquire a 51 percent majority stake in Telepsicologia Srl, held 51 percent by Professor Marco Pacifico and 49 percent by CEPIB Formazione & Ricerca Srls.

Visibilia Editore ceded 15 percent the day after it announced that a hearing was held yesterday as part of the proceedings brought jointly by the shareholders against the directors and former members of the board of statutory auditors, with the intervention of BDO Italia Spa as auditor and with the participation of the company, in the person of the special receiver, Massimo Fabiani. During the hearing, it was acknowledged that the members of the board of directors had been replaced and, at the outcome of the discussion, the Court reserved the decision as to the possible continuation-and the possible modalities of the proceedings.

In New York, the Dow is in the red by 0.3 percent, the Nasdaq gives up 0.6 percent, and the S&P 500 retreats 0.4 percent.

Among currencies, the euro changes hands at USD1.0658 against USD1.0581 at Thursday's close. In contrast, the pound is worth USD1.2045 from USD1.1927 on Thursday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD81.92 per barrel compared to USD83.25 per barrel on Thursday evening. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,856.97 an ounce from USD1,827.74 an ounce at Thursday's close.

On Monday's economic calendar, at 0050 CET, the BSI index of sentiment among large manufacturing manufacturers will arrive from Japan.

At 1100 CET, the Eurogroup meeting will be held while at 1500 CET, three-, six- and 12-month BTF auctions will be held in France.

At 1600 CET, consumer inflation expectations will come in from the U.S. and three- and six-month Treasury bond auctions will be held.

On the Italian corporate front, the results of several listed companies including Assicurazioni Generali, Avio, CIR, Tod's and De' Longhi are expected.

By Chiara Bruschi, Alliance News reporter

Comments and questions to redazione@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2023 Alliance News IS Italian Service Ltd. All rights reserved.