(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari lived up to forecasts and opened higher on Monday's session, on a day lacking in macro data and corporate appointments but opening a week that-at least on the economic front-will heat up between Wednesday and Friday.

German producer prices fell 6.0 percent year-on-year in July, reversing June's 0.1 percent increase and pointing to the first decline since November 2020, Destatis reported Monday.

The decline was largely due to a base effect, worse than market estimates of a 5.1 percent decline due to a 19 percent drop in energy prices, with electricity prices falling 30 percent. Meanwhile, intermediate food prices fell 3.4 percent, dragged down by metals, fertilizer, and nitrogen and wood. In contrast, the cost of nondurable goods rose 8.1 percent, driven by food, particularly sugar.

Excluding energy, producer prices rose 2.0 percent year-on-year.

On a monthly basis, producer prices fell 1.1 percent in July, marking the third consecutive month of decline and the fastest pace in the sequence, compared with forecasts for a 0.2 percent drop.

The FTSE Mib opened up 0.8 percent to 27,982.02, the Mid-Cap is up 0.1 percent to 41,340.42, the Small-Cap is up 0.3 percent to 26,801.24 while Italy Growth is down slightly to 8,851.40.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 rises at the start 0.3 percent to 7,281.68, Paris' CAC 40 is up 0.7 percent to 7,213.06 and Frankfurt's DAX 40 gains 0.4 percent to 15,642.33.

On the Piazza Affari blue chip list, almost all stocks are up at the start except for Nexi and Iveco Group, down 0.7 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

At the top of the list, Saipem leads the bullish with a 2.7 percent increase and as many as 5.1 million pieces changed hands in a few minutes.

Only Telecom Italia and Intesa Sanpaolo -- up 0.3 percent the former and 0.8 percent the latter -- are trading higher, with the former monopolist seeing nearly 8.0 million shares transferred since the bell rang and Italy's top bank registering moves of 6.0 million shares.

The banking sector as a whole did well, with Monte dei Paschi on the upswing, accomplice to a 1.7 percent rise and best among listed banks on the Mib.

Ferrari rises, up 1.8 percent, after Barclays raised its full-year earnings estimates for Ferrari NVson the heels of the luxury sports car maker's strong half-year results and a "constructive" call with Cavallino management.

The investment bank is still reluctant to press the accelerator pedal on Ferrari's shares, preferring to wait for a "better entry point" and reiterating its "equal weight" recommendation. Barclays raised its price target for Ferrari, which has the ticker RACE in the stock market, to EUR300.00 from EUR265.00, reflecting a 13 percent increase.

For 2023, Barclays left its earnings forecast for Ferrari largely unchanged. Revenues were slightly revised downward to EUR5.82 billion from the previous estimate of EUR5.84 billion, and the estimate for net income was slightly increased to EUR1.18 billion from EUR1.17 billion.

For 2024, the British bank raised its revenue forecast for the Milan-listed company by 0.9 percent to EUR6.33 billion from EUR6.27 billion, and its net income forecast got a larger increase of 4.4 percent to EUR1.36 billion from EUR1.31 billion.

On the Mid-Cap, Piaggio rose 3.6 percent after announcing earlier that in connection with the appointment of a new chairman of the board, a special board meeting will be convened.

Late last week, in fact, the company had to say goodbye to historic chairman Roberto Colaninno, who passed away at the age of 80. Same fate for Immsi, another company led by Colaninno, which on the Small-Cap gains 7.5 percent.

Juventus FC rises 0.7 percent the day after a good league debut, capped with a clear 3-0 win at home to Udinese.

At the bottom of the basket, Caltagirone and Alerion close out the list, accomplishing declines of 3.2% and 3.1%, respectively.

Among the small-cap companies, in addition to the aforementioned Immsi, Giglio Group recovers, rising 7.5 percent.

KME Group does not trade after reporting Monday that its subsidiary KME SE has signed a letter of intent related to the specialty products business led by Cunova, of which KME SE, in January 2022, had sold 55 percent of the share capital to German investment fund The Paragon Fund III.

KME SE, Paragon and SDCL EDGE Acquisition Corpn, an acquisition special purpose vehicle with securities listed on the NYSE, where it has raised USD200 million, have signed a non-binding letter of intent regarding a potential business combination between Cunova and SDCL EDGE.

The agreement stipulates that upon completion of the merger, a newly formed British holding company will have obtained a listing on the NYSE; Paragon will collect all cash from the divestment; and KME SE will not receive cash but will convert the stake held in Cunova into the newly listed shares, further increasing its stake through the contribution of its aerospace business. Under the agreement, it is expected that upon closing of the business combination, KME SE will hold a majority stake of about 51 percent in the NYSE-listed combined entity's share capital, equal to about 46 percent fully diluted upon the eventual exercise of the private and public warrants issued by SDCL EDGE.

Among SMEs, Altea Green Power gains 4.4 percent and Redelfi 3.0 percent after BESS Power Corp, a 65 percent subsidiary of RAL Green Energy Corp, an equal joint venture between Redelfi and Altea, underwrote a USD15 million financing with Leyline Renewable Capital LLC.

The funds will be earmarked for the implementation of the stand-alone Battery Energy Storage System pipeline in the U.S. territory. Leyline is a U.S.-based company that invests in renewable energy, providing financing to support projects from the early stage of development through construction.

Visibilia Editore continues to rally, up 13 percent, as the date for the board's approval of its half-year report approaches.

In Asia, China's central bank cut a key interest rate in an effort to counter the post-Covid growth slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.

The one-year primary lending rate, which serves as the benchmark for corporate loans, was cut to 3.45 percent from 3.55 percent, the People's Bank of China said in a statement, while the five-year LPR, which is used to rate mortgages, was left unchanged at 4.2 percent.

After the PBoC decision, the Nikkei is up 0.3 percent to 31,554.47, the Shanghai Composite gives up 0.8 percent to 3,108.44 and the Hang Seng drops 1.7 percent to 17,643.53.

In New York, the Dow Jones closed Friday up 0.1 percent to 34,500.66, the Nasdaq fell 0.2 percent to 13,290.78 and the S&P 500 was virtually unchanged at 4,369.71.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0881 versus USD1.0875 in Friday's European equities close while the pound was instead worth USD1.2734 from USD1.2738 on Friday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD85.38 per barrel versus USD84.37 per barrel at Friday night's close. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,888.75 an ounce from USD1,892.00 an ounce Friday night.

On Monday's U.S. economic calendar, a three- and six-month Treasury bond auction is scheduled at 1730 CEST.

On the corporate calendar in the Piazza Affari, no particular event is scheduled.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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