(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari closed in Wednesday's session, a day devoid of U.S. trading due to Juneeteth.

Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said, "A quiet session without the U.S. was enlivened by the return of inflation in the UK to 2 percent. As is often the case, headline data do not tell the whole story, and the rise in services inflation dampened hopes of an August cut by the Bank of England. Nonetheless, the FTSE 100 managed to gain a small uptick in thin trade, taking a cue from the stronger Asian session overnight."

"The first two days of the week saw the selling wave in European markets come to a halt but warnings about fiscal stress in the Eurozone prompted traders to hit the sell button once again. Eurozone governments of all types face a number of challenges but are unlikely to find popularity if they go down the road of fiscal austerity. France's current problems could be a model for what is to come, putting further pressure on European markets."

The FTSE Mib closed Wednesday down 0.3 percent to 33,220.31, the Mid-Cap fell 0.8 percent to 46,843.52, the Small-Cap lost 0.1 percent to 28,683.24, and Italy Growth gained 0.5 percent to 8,110.56.

London's FTSE 100 closed up 0.2 percent, Paris' CAC 40 lost 0.7 percent and Frankfurt's DAX 40 gave up 0.3 percent.

On the blue chip list, Eni did well, rising 0.8 percent, following up on the previous two sessions' gains.

Enel, on the other hand, gave up 0.8 percent. Enel subsidiary Enel Finance International announced Wednesday that it has launched a multi-tranche "Sustainability-Linked Bond" aimed at institutional investors in the U.S. and international markets for a total amount of USD2 billion. The issue, which is guaranteed by Enel, has received oversubscribed applications about three times, totaling total orders of about USD5.6 billion. Proceeds from the issue are expected to be used to finance the group's ordinary needs, including refinancing maturing debt.

Banks contrasted, with Monte dei Paschi and BPM up 0.8 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively, while Mediolanum gave up 1.2 percent and UniCredit lost 0.1 percent.

Campari--declining 1.2%--on Tuesday announced that it had successfully placed an unrated 7-year bond aimed at institutional investors only. The offering concerns a bond that has a total nominal amount of EUR220 million and matures on June 25, 2031, and pays a fixed annual coupon of 4.256 percent. The company let it be known that the bonds will be issued at an issue price equal to 100 percent of par value.

On the mid-cap, step backward for Fincantieri, which gave up 2.2 percent after a 0.5 percent rise on the eve. The stock had previously come from seven sessions in a row that closed higher.

Moltiply Group, on the other hand, lost 3.7 percent to EUR34.10 per share on the heels of eve's 0.3 percent decline.

Saras lost 0.3% to EUR1.6210 per share. After taking over the Moratti stake, Vitol launched a takeover bid for the remaining shares--about 55 percent--of Saras not yet held. As the two companies disclosed Tuesday, Vitol will offer EUR1.60 for each of the 518.5 million shares in Saras, for a maximum outlay that could reach EUR532.9 million.

Maire -- down 0.4 percent -- stopped benefiting from Tuesday's news about subsidiary Kinetics Technology, which was awarded by Holborn Europa Raffinerie GmbH an EPC project to build a vegetable oil hydrogenation plant within the Holborn refinery in Hamburg, Germany. The plant, which will be operational in early 2027, includes the pretreatment unit, HVO unit and interconnection infrastructure with existing plants. The value of the contract is about USD400 million.

On the Small-Cap, Giglio Group closed flat at EUR0.36 per share.

Sogefi rose 13 percent, in position for its third bullish session. The company reported that the board of directors has resolved to propose to the July 18 shareholders' meeting to distribute an extraordinary unit dividend of EUR0.923, before withholding taxes, for each of the outstanding shares with the exclusion of treasury shares held on the record date, for a total estimated amount of EUR110 million.

Aedes closed unchanged at EUR0.25, after two sessions in which it gained about 14 percent.

Among SMEs, boost on Comal, which moves up 5.9 percent, on its third bullish session.

ATON Green Storage advances 5.3%, pointing to its 12th daily bullish candle.

At the tail end, 4AIM Sicaf closed 5.6 percent in the red.

Among currencies, the euro changes hands at USD1.0748 from USD1.0747 in Tuesday's European stock close while the pound is worth USD1.2728 from USD1.2708 Tuesday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude trades at USD85.61 per barrel from USD84.77 per barrel at Tuesday's close. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD2,327.10 an ounce from USD2,323.46 last night.

Thursday's macroeconomic calendar opens, at 0315 CEST, with the People's Bank of China's preferred rate announcement, then continues in Europe with ACEA's data on auto sales.

At 1000 CEST, eyes will be on the European Central Bank's monthly report, while the hottest moment of the day is the Bank of England's decision at 1300 CEST. At 1600 CEST, Eurozone consumer confidence will be released.

At 1430 CEST, overseas, room for jobless claims and housing market data. At 1700 CEST, crude oil stocks and EIA refinery number data will be released. At3 2230 CEST, the Federal Reserve's balance sheet will be released.

Among the companies in the business square, no special events are planned.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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