(Alliance News) - Major European stock markets are expected to be mixed on Monday on a day that was poor in macroeconomic cues and as Bank of Japan officials remained divided on how to proceed with the next interest rate hike.

The central bank's summary of views at its June meeting showed that members acknowledged the negative impact of the high cost of living on consumption, but hesitated on the timing of policy normalization.

Thus, IG futures give the FTSE Mib in the green by 0.6 percent or up 202.5 points, after closing 1.1 percent in the red at 33,308.77.

Paris' CAC 40 is expected up 0.1 percent or up 10.2 points, Frankfurt's DAX 40 is given in the green by 0.2 percent or up 38.9 points, and London's FTSE 100 is expected down 0.1 percent or down 8.6 points.

Among the smaller listings on Friday, the Mid-Cap gives up 0.9% to 47.159.22, as does the Small-Cap to 28.835.20, while Italy Growth gives up 0.4% to 8.106.30.

In macroeconomic news, foreign direct investment in China dropped 28 percent year-on-year to CNY412.5 billion in the January-May period, a record decline for the first five months of the year.

About 12 percent of the total, or CNY50.41 billion, went to high-tech manufacturing industries, up 2.7 percentage points from the same period last year.

Considering May alone, CNY52.3 billion flowed into the country, down from CNY58.5 billion in April.

Returning to Milan on Friday, on the Mib, Hera did well, in the green by 1.4 percent, as did Saipem and Nexi, up 1.2 percent and 1.4 percent, while the banking sector suffered, with Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena down 3.8 percent, preceded by Amplifon, also in the red by 3.8 percent, and Banca Popolare di Sondrio, down 2.8 percent.

Terna also went down, down 0.4 percent. According to the company's data, electricity demand in May was 24.7 billion kWh, up 1.9 percent from May 2023.

This positive change, which only partially recovers last year's May figure in which there was a 7.4 percent decline, was achieved with an equal number of working days, 22, and an average monthly temperature basically in line with May 2023.

The figure for electricity demand did not vary from May a year earlier, confirming growth at a slower pace due to a slight recovery in industry of 1.4 percent and a more brisk recovery in services.

At the territorial level, the trend change in May was up 1.8 percent in the North and Center and 2.3 percent in the South and Islands. In the first five months of the year, national requirements are up 1.1 percent compared to the corresponding period in 2023.

On the cadet segment, Fincantieri dropped 1.5 percent. The company together with Viking announced Friday that it had signed contracts to build two cruise ships.

The ships will be based on the characteristics of previous ships already built by Fincantieri for this shipowner and will be delivered between 2028 and 2029. The value of the deal has been described as "large."

Maire Tecnimont -- down 1.4 percent -- announced Thursday that NextChem, through its subsidiary NextChem Tech, will act as Technology Design Integrator to develop the Process Design Package for the hydrogen and carbon dioxide recovery unit of the Hail and Ghasha development project.

The Hail and Ghasha project, whose project was awarded to Tecnimont - Maire's Integrated E&C Solutions - by ADNOC in October 2023 for a total value of USD8.7 billion, is one of the most strategic initiatives globally for the decarbonization of the energy transformation industry, the company explained in a note.

Iren is up 1.0 percent after it announced Wednesday that it has signed a new EUR200 million, 18-year green-format credit line with the European Investment Bank to support the group's sustainable investments over 2023-2027 related to power grid resilience projects.

Sesa -- up 1.7 percent -- reported Thursday that it closed the year to April 30 with consolidated revenues and other income of EUR3.21 billion from EUR2.90 billion in 2023 and marking a 10 percent growth.

Among smallcaps, doValue gave up 2.0 percent after it reported that following the announcement of the binding agreement to acquire Gardant, S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings confirmed the company's Issuer Credit Rating and Issuer Default Rating at "BB," with a "Stable" outlook.

The rating and outlook confirmation reflect expectations that the Gardant integration will allow doValue to reduce leverage, according to the released note.

Leonardo--declining 1.6 percent on the Mib--reported that it has signed an agreement to sell its outright stake in Industria Italiana Autobus to Seri Industrial, which is in the red by 0.6 percent.

Under the deal, Seri Industrial will take over 98 percent of the share capital while the remaining 2 percent will continue to be held by Invitalia, already a partner along with Leonardo in Industria Italiana Autobus.

Among SMEs, ESI rose 7.1 percent after it announced on Friday that it had signed a contract for the construction of a photovoltaic plant, to be built in the province of Alessandria, commissioned by a leading international operator in the energy sector.

The order consists of the design, construction and installation of a photovoltaic plant with a capacity of 5 MWP in the Piedmont region.

The amount of the order, which is approximately EUR4.2 million, will be accrued in fiscal years 2024 and 2025.

Ecomembrane gave up 1.7 percent after it announced that SBS Solar, a 55 percent subsidiary of Ecomembrane and part of the consolidation scope, has signed a three-year framework contract with a leading energy operator for the design and supply of Solaxis single-axis solar trackers on nine photovoltaic plants, to be built in the future, with a total installed capacity of more than 100MW.

The total value of materials purchased under the framework contract, for the first four plants under exclusivity, is estimated and will not exceed EUR6.5 million over a three-year period.

Comal rose 0.6 percent after it announced Friday that it has won a EUR1.2 million order from an Italian operator to supply the Sun Hunter tracker.

The tracker is designed and manufactured by Comal at its Montalto di Castro factory and is a state-of-the-art product, already with an extensive track record of completed installations and enabling a significant increase in the levels of energy produced by the plant and a sharp reduction in wind damage.

In Asia, the Nikkei is in the green 0.5 percent to 38,799.44, the Hang Seng is in the red 0.7 percent to 17,895.68, and the Shanghai Composite is down 0.6 percent to 2,978.93.

In New York on Friday, the Dow closed fractional green at 39,150.33, the Nasdaq finished down 0.2 percent at 17,689.36 and the S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent to 5,464.62.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0686 from USD1.0686 on Friday in European equities closing while the pound was worth USD1.2626 from USD1.2626 on Friday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is trading at USD85.78 per barrel from USD85.78 per barrel at Friday's close. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD2,338.90 an ounce from USD2,338.90 on Friday evening.

Monday's macroeconomic calendar opens with data on German business expectations and the IFO index of business confidence in Germany at 1000 CEST.

At 1200 CEST in the UK, data on the trend in industrial orders are expected, while at the same time there is the Eurogroup meeting and the German Buba monthly report.

An hour later is the turn of the Spanish consumer confidence index and Chinese foreign direct investment data.

No particular announcements are expected among companies listed on the Milan Stock Exchange.

By Claudia Cavaliere, Alliance News reporter

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