(Alliance News) - Piazza Affari opens lower Monday morning, as do other European exchanges, as the banking turmoil that began with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank continues to affect Italian stocks.

UBS Group announced Sunday that it will take over its troubled Swiss rival Credit Suisse Group for USD3.25 billion after talks on Sunday aimed at preventing the stricken bank from triggering a broader international banking crisis.

"UBS's takeover of Credit Suisse is the main focus for markets today, with European stock markets still under pressure despite the bailout deal. Banks, financial services and insurance are the worst performing sectors across Europe," comments Victoria Scholar, Head of Investment at Interactive Investor.

"Risk appetite in global markets is weighing on oil prices, which are down more than 2.5 percent. Later this week, the focus shifts to major central bank rate decisions, including from the Fed, which is expected to raise rates by 25 basis points despite uncertainty in the banking sector. In the UK, investors are keeping an eye on the latest inflation data on Wednesday and the Bank of England's rate decision on Thursday."

Thus, the FTSE Mib opens down 2.1 percent 24,949.66.

Among the smaller listings, the Mid-Cap is down 1.6 percent to 40,881.48, the Small-Cap gives up 1.7 percent to 28,935.46 while Italy Growth is in the red 0.7 percent to 9,125.55.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 is down 1.5 percent, Paris' CAC 40 gives up 1.0 percent and Frankfurt's DAX 40 is in the red by 1.1 percent.

Meanwhile in China, the People's Bank of China said it has kept its one-year lending rate-which serves as a benchmark for business loans-at 3.65 percent. The five-year rate also remained at 4.3 percent.

On the macro front, annual producer price inflation in Germany slowed for the fifth consecutive month to a 17-month low of 15.8 percent in February from the previous month's 17.6 percent increase and compared with market forecasts of a 14.5 percent rise, amid more moderate increases in energy prices.

As Destatis showed Monday, energy prices remained the biggest contributors to the rise, up 28 percent from 32 percent in January, particularly natural gas distribution with 39 percent and electricity with 27 percent.

On the main list in Piazza Affari, apart from a few bullish exceptions including A2A, utilities and gas Terna, Snam and Italgas, up 1.9%, 1.5%, 0.8% and 0.2%, the list is all in the red.

BERP Bank is stuck for volatility as it gives up 6.7%. Badly UniCredit, which loses 6.2%, Banco BPM opens in the red 5.3% while Intesa Sanpaolo and FinecoBank give up 3.8% and 3.7%. Banca Monte Paschi di Siena, in its first session on the Mib, retreats 6.1%.

Oil stocks also hurt, with Eni down 3.2%, Tenaris gives up 2.0% and Saipem loses 4.0%.

DiaSorin gives up 3.6%. The company announced Friday that it has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the Simplexa Covid-19 & Flu A/B Direct test.

The test detects and differentiates influenza type A and B and SARS-CoV-2 viruses, providing physicians with the information they need to determine the most appropriate course of treatment for patients.

On the mostly bearish Mid-Cap, the only stocks in green are Antares Vision, up 1.5 percent, Salcef Group, De' Longhi and Iren, up 1.3 percent, 0.8 percent and 0.6 percent.

At the bottom are El.En, down 7.9 percent, and banks. Credem opens in the red 4.4%, Banca Popolare di Sondrio is down 4.1%, and BFF Bank trades down 3.9%.

Fincantieri opens flat at EUR0.52 per share. The company announced Friday that it has initiated a new share buyback program to service the company's existing approved incentive plans and in particular the 2021 incentive plan.

The plan will target a maximum number of 10 million shares, corresponding to 0.6 percent of the company's share capital, and will last until April 6, 2023.

Rai Way - in the red by 0.4 percent - reported Thursday that as of Dec. 31, 2022, core revenues amounted to EUR245.4 million, up 6.7 percent from EUR229.9 million in fiscal 2021, partly due to indexing to inflation.

Revenues attributable to RAI, at EUR210.5 million, benefit from the increase related to refarming activities - effective from the second half of 2021 - as well as a one-time contribution of EUR2.0 million. Revenues from third-party customers stood at EUR34.9 million, up 14 percent thanks to the contribution of new regional digital terrestrial networks.

On the Small-Cap, Gequity is on top with a 7.3 percent increase.

Softlab follows and advances 3.7 percent after approving on Friday its consolidated financial statements and draft operating budget to Dec. 31, 2022 reporting revenues up 25 percent to EUR23.7 million from EUR18.9 million a year earlier.

Net income of EUR3.2 million is in line with EUR3.1 million in 2021, after reporting net financial management income of EUR239,000 and operating income taxes of EUR939,000.

Fidia gives up 0.7 percent after announcing Friday that it has approved financial statements as of Dec. 31, 2022, having reported net revenues of EUR24.4 million from EUR23.8 million in 2021.

Net income amounted to EUR5.8 million from a loss of EUR3.5 million as of Dec. 31, 2021.

Newlat Food is down 1.1 percent. On Friday, it approved its financial statements for the year ended Dec. 31, 2022, and reported record consolidated revenues of EUR741.1 million in the period, an improvement of more than 18 percent from EUR625.2 million in the same period last year.

Consolidated revenues as of February 28, 2023 were EUR126.7 million, up 23 percent from the previous year.

Among SMEs, in a still uneventful list, SG Company is still not trading. The company reported on Thursday that the order backlog of contracted orders from the beginning of the year to date is EUR9.6 million, 43% higher than the figure recorded in the same period last year of EUR6.7 million.

GEL still does not trade after announcing Friday that it has approved results as of December 31, 2022, reporting a net profit of EUR700,000 down from the EUR2.0 million recorded in 2021. The board will also propose to the shareholders' meeting to allocate the entire amount to an extraordinary reserve.

Revenues amounted to EUR17.2 million, down 8.0 percent from EUR18.6 million in the previous year.

In New York, the Dow closed down 1.2 percent at 31,861.98, the Nasdaq gave up 0.7 percent to 11,630.51 while the S&P 500 closed 1.1 percent in the red at 3,916.64.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed down 1.4 percent to 27,945.67, the Hang Seng in the red 2.7 percent to 19,000.71 while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.5 percent to 3,234.91.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0638 against USD1.0667 at Friday's close. In contrast, the pound is worth USD1.2177 from USD1.2169 on Friday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD70.87 per barrel versus USD73.50 per barrel Friday night. Gold, meanwhile, trades at USD2,003.04 an ounce from USD1,959.47 an ounce at Friday's close.

On Monday's economic calendar, the EU trade balance for January is due at 1100 CET.

In the afternoon, French BTF auctions are scheduled at 1500 CET and US Treasury bond auctions at 1630 CET.

In Piazza Affari, results from Mondo TV Suisse, Portobello, Softec and Tecma Solutions are expected.

By Chiara Bruschi, Alliance News reporter

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