US-China Agreement Boosts Markets

(Alliance News) – European stock markets maintained their upward momentum after China and the US signed a trade deal on tariffs and agreed to accelerate rare earth shipments, though full details of the agreement have yet to be released. US Commerce Secretary Lutnick stated that "the agreement was signed and sealed two days ago." China, for its part, announced that the US has lifted restrictive measures and expressed willingness to continue cooperating "in the same direction" in the future.

As a result, major European exchanges are trending higher. Paris's CAC 40 is up 1.4%, Frankfurt's DAX rises 0.9%, and London's FTSE 100 climbs 0.5%.

In Italy, the Mib is up 0.1% at 39,397.04 points, the Mid-Cap grows 0.5% to 53,737.63, the Small-Cap rises 0.4% to 31,524.94, and the Italia Growth index posts a slight 0.1% gain at 8,155.07 points.

On the blue-chip index, Prysmian leads with a 2.6% increase, extending its strong performance from yesterday after Deutsche Bank Research initiated coverage with a 'buy' rating and a target price of EUR67.00.

Iveco is among the top performers, rising 0.9% to EUR15.965.

Amplifon closes the list in negative territory, down 5.6%: in recent days, the company repurchased its own shares for over EUR12 million.

In banking sector news, Mediobanca, down 0.2%, announced approval of an updated 'one brand one culture' plan through 2028, forecasting revenues of EUR4.40 billion and a 20% increase over the three-year period. Nagel's strategy to counter Monte Paschi di Siena's offer – MPS shares down 2.7%, which meanwhile has launched a capital increase of over EUR13 billion for Mediobanca – is to return EUR4.9 billion in cash to shareholders over three years. Additionally, Mediobanca revealed that shareholder Aurelia sold call options on a total of 250,000 ordinary shares of the bank.

Unipol has also approved adherence to the voluntary public exchange offer by BPER Banca for Banca Popolare di Sondrio Spa. The company explained the decision was supported by a favorable opinion from the related-party transactions committee. Unipol shares are down 0.6% at EUR16.51 each, while BPER falls 0.8% to EUR7.448 per share.

Leonardo, which led the index yesterday, opens at the bottom today, down 2.4% at EUR47.06 per share.

On the Mid-Cap front, Alerion is up 5.1% at EUR17.16 per share after updating its industrial plan, which calls for investments of around EUR1.8 billion over three years.

Corrado Passera, CEO of illimity Bank – up 1.7% – announced he will tender all his directly and indirectly held ordinary shares, totaling about 4.0% of the bank's share capital, to the public purchase and exchange offer launched by Banca Ifis – up 0.5%.

Fincantieri slips 1.0% after issuing over 800,000 new ordinary shares, without nominal value, as part of the 2022-2024 Performance Share Plan and the 2025-2026 Broad-Based Share Ownership Plan.

MARR tops the list with a 6.8% increase to EUR9.68 per share, rebounding from a 1.2% decline over the past thirty days.

At the bottom of the list, Juventus FC falls 4.6% following a 5-2 defeat to Manchester City in the Club World Cup.

Among small caps, EPH is up 0.4%.

Bestbe Holding leads with a 4.9% jump to EUR0.107 after announcing that Watfood has become a shareholder with a 24% stake acquired from Ubilot.

Trevi Finanziaria Industriale rises 3.3%, continuing its positive trend since the start of the year, with an 18% increase over six months after securing contracts and orders totaling over EUR140 million in April and May, raising its order backlog at the end of May to EUR715 million.

Netweek closes the list down 2.3%.

Among SMEs, Mare Engineering Group – down 1.5% at EUR3.35 per share – announced a reduction in the maximum value of its public purchase and exchange offer for Eles, which remains flat at EUR2.25. Subsequently, Mare approved a capital increase of up to approximately EUR1.3 million, including premium, to support the partial voluntary public purchase and exchange offer for Eles.

Giocamondo Study – up 5.1% – reported a first-half loss for fiscal 2025, as of March 31, of EUR238,000, down from a loss of EUR282,000 in the same period last year. Sales revenue reached EUR2.3 million, up 29% from EUR1.8 million in the first half of 2024. Production value rose to EUR2.4 million from EUR1.8 million, marking a 30% increase.

Finance For Food – flat at EUR1.82 – disclosed that Call, a company linked to CEO Luca Perconti, purchased 65,000 ordinary shares at EUR1.73 each. The shares were sold by Valdichiesa, controlled by Tredici, the majority shareholder of Finance For Food. The transaction was authorized by EnVent Italia SIM in light of lock-up obligations assumed at the time of listing. As part of the deal, Call has committed not to sell the acquired shares for at least 24 months.

Giglio.com ranks among the top performers, rising 6% to EUR1.06 per share.

H-Farm leads the charge, up 7.2% at EUR0.171 per share.

Yesterday in New York, the Dow Jones closed up 0.9% at 43,386.84, the Nasdaq rose 1.0% to 20,167.91, and the S&P 500 gained 0.8% to 6,141.02.

In Asia, the Nikkei 225 closed up 1.4%, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.7%, and the Hang Seng is down 0.2%.

Among currencies, the euro is trading at USD1.1708 from USD1.1714 at Thursday's close, while the pound is at USD1.3739 from USD1.3746 last night.

In commodities, Brent is trading at USD68.27 per barrel from USD67.73 at the previous close, while gold stands at USD3,287.8285 an ounce from USD3,328.025 an ounce previously.

Looking at the macroeconomic calendar, attention this afternoon will turn to US core PCE prices at 1430 CEST, ahead of Baker Hughes rig count data at 1900 CEST, with the day wrapping up with the Federal Reserve's stress test results, released at 2230 CEST.

Among companies listed on Piazza Affari, results are expected from Giglio Group.

By Michele Cirulli, Alliance News Reporter

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