030808_sintesi luglio

In July, trading in ETFs recorded a new historical high with a turnover of €198.3 million and, on Thursday 10 July, set a new record for the number of trades in a single session achieving a turnover of €47.3 million. With the conclusion of the operations relating to Telecom ordinary and savings shares, tender offers achieved the second best ever level, with a total of more than €16 billion.

In July, the Mib index remained, with minor fluctuations, around the values recorded at the end of June - with 12 positive and 11 negative sessions - leading it to close the month at 18,088, a rise of 0.3% on the end of June and 6.7% compared with the end of 2002. Since the annual low on 12 March, the upswing has been 21.7%.

The Nuovo Mercato Numex index benefited from a positive trend - particularly in the first two weeks - ending the month at 1,357, a rise of 2.4% on the end of June and 3.7% since the end of 2002.

The continuous indices grew at different rates: Mibtel +1.8% (+6.9% compared with the end of 2002), S&P/Mib +1.8% (+6.9%), Mib30 +1.5% (+6.7%) and Midex +4.6% (+11.5%). The performance of the MIB STAR index in July was slightly better than the performance of the general index (+0.6%), remaining above the levels achieved at the end of 2002 (+2.2%).

The three macrosectors achieved slightly different performances in July: Financial +1.7%, Industrial +0.2% and Services -1.4%, which, compared with the end of 2002, represented a rise of +15.7% for Financial and +6.2% for Services and a fall of -4.3% for Industrial. Of the main sectors (representing at least 1% of the capitalisation) the performances of note were, on the one hand, Textiles (+7.8%), Construction (+4.6%) and Property (+4.2%) and, on the other hand, Public Utilities (-2.6%) and Minerals-Metals-Petroleum (-1.7%) Compared with the end of the previous year, the most significant changes were seen, on the one hand, in Transportation-Tourism (+29.8%) and Banks (+20.0%) and, on the other, in Minerals-Metals-Petroleum (-12.8%) and Auto (-10.4%)

Those S&P/Mib shares that achieved the best performance in July include E.Biscom (+12.2%), Bulgari (+11.8%) and Capitalia (+11.7%). Compared with the end of 2002, the most impressive figures belong to Banca Intesa (+48.8%), Capitalia (+43.9%), San Paolo-Imi (+41.5%) and BNL (+40.8%).

Volatility remained at the low levels recorded in June, amounting to 12.0% for the Borsa (where the STAR segment volatility remains significantly lower at 3.7%) whilst falling further on the Nuovo Mercato (13.9%).

As a result of the stability of share prices and the absence of any significant listing operations, the capitalisation of national listed companies remained stable, rising slightly from €481.4 billion at the end of June to €482.0 billion (representing 37.0% of GDP and higher than the figure of €458.0 billion posted at the end of 2002). In detail, a breakdown of the markets shows the Borsa with a figure of €470.8 billion, the Nuovo Mercato at €6.3 billion and the Mercato Ristretto at €4.8 billion.

Eni proved to be the listed company with the highest capitalisation (€52.6 billion), followed by Telecom Italia (49.0), Tim (35.1), Enel (34.2) and Unicredito Italiano (26.2).

The list was affected in July by the admission to trading on the Borsa of Banche Popolari Unite (1 July) and the delistings of Banca Popolare Bergamo, Banca Popolare Commercio e Industria, Air Dolomiti, Dalmine, Savino Del Bene and Interbanca (following a residual takeover bid) as well as the delisting from the Mercato Ristretto of Banca Popolare Luino Varese (at the same time as the admission for trading of the company created from the merger). During the month, the Jolly Hotels savings share was also delisted. The number of listed companies is 281. In detail, the listed companies include 225 on the Borsa (including 6 foreign companies), 44 on the Nuovo Mercato (2 foreign) and 12 on the Mercato Ristretto.

Following 267 admissions and 49 delistings, the number of instruments listed on the MCW rose from 1,869 to 2,087.

In July, the capital increase operations for Lazio, Fiat, Ifil and Ifi (private shares) were completed. Before the auction of unexercised rights, these raised a total of €110, €1,812, €499 and €204 million respectively. The percentage of unexercised rights - with the exception of the first operation (21.7%) - was very low, these being 1.6%, 0.7% and 1.1% respectively. The capital increase operations for Unipol (ordinary and private), Banca Intermobiliare and Aisoftw@re are also in progress.

In July, the residual takeover bids of Palio for Savino Del Bene, Tenaris for Dalmine and Banca Antonveneta for Interbanca ordinary shares were completed as were the voluntary tender offers of Olivetti for Telecom Italia ordinary and savings shares, Wiretel2 for Sirti, Finm for Manuli Rubber Industries and Banca Antonveneta for Interbanca convertible bonds and these returned to the market €3, €14, €245, €4,103, €1,171, €53, €27 and €0.1 million respectively. The contribution of the Telecom Italia operation - the second largest tender offer of 2003 after the tender offer for Autostrade (€6,459 billion) - brought the total amount raised from tender offers in the year in question to just over €16 billion, making this the second best year in terms of size since the introduction in 1992 of compulsory tender offers into the Italian system, behind the record set in 1999 (€55.5 billion).

In July, trading in shares recorded a daily average of 130,800 contracts and a turnover of €2.58 billion. In the period January-July, the daily average was 149,500 contracts and turnover of €2.73 billion (-3.8% and +6.6% on the corresponding period in 2002). In detail, in July the daily average was 123,200 contracts and €2.55 billion for shares listed on the Borsa and 7,400 contracts and €30.8 million for Nuovo Mercato shares.

The average size of stock contracts (Borsa, daytime trading) fell from the record levels achieved in June, down from €23,700 to €21,000, but nevertheless remained high and still above the average figure for the current year (€19,500).

STMicroelectronics became the most traded share in the month in terms of turnover, with 16.9% of total trading, followed by Eni (13.1%) and Telecom Italia (9.1%).

Trading in covered warrants grew in terms of turnover (daily average €44.6 million, +25.2% on June) but decreased in terms of traded contracts (14,400 per day, -18.4% on June)

After hours trading recorded a daily average of 3,600 contracts and a turnover of €22.3 million. The intensity of after hours trading compared with daytime trading fell for contracts (9.7%) and grew slightly in terms of turnover (3.0%). In the period January-July, the daily average was 5,200 contracts and €27.0 million.

Trading in fixed-income securities on the Mot fell slightly: for Government securities, the daily average dropped to €511 million (-1.1% on June) and to €30.0 million (-21.8%) for private bonds. In the period January-July 2003, the daily average for trading in Government securities reached €520 million, whilst the average for private bonds was €39.4 million. The EuroMOT also experienced a downturn in trading, with a daily average of 536 contracts (-23.5% on June and +144.7% on July 2002) and a daily average turnover of €12.8 million

(-25.2% and +83.7%). In the period January-July 2003, average daily turnover was €15.8 million, +84.7% compared with the corresponding period last year.

With regard to trading in equity derivatives on the Idem, the daily average number of standard contracts in July was 15,600 for futures on the Mib30, 10,600 for the miniFIB, 9,400 for options on the Mib30, 1,700 for stock futures and 26,300 for stock options.

In the period January-July, the daily average of the Idem was 75,400 standard contracts, representing an increase of 13.4% on the corresponding period in 2002. All the instruments, except for futures on the Mib30 (18,700 standard contracts per day -3.0%), recorded growth: miniFIB (11,600, +51.8%), options on the Mib30 (10,700, +15.1%), stock futures (2,400, +223.6%, but it should be taken into account that the instrument has been traded since July 2002) and stock options (32,000, +5.8%).

Milan, 8 August 2003