Milan shares close slightly higher; Bulgari continues to shine UPDATE

Milan shares close slightly higher; Bulgari continues to shine UPDATE

	Published : Mon, 15 Jan 2007 18:38 By : Agencies Print this Story

(updates with full report)

MILAN (AFX) - Share prices ended slightly higher, with Bulgari leading gains and the oil sector supported by a new rise in oil prices, dealers said.

The Mibtel index closed up 0.55 pct to 32,496, while the S&P/Mib gained 0.47 pct at 42,307.

Some 257.524 contracts worth 4.134 bln eur changed hands, the lowest level in five days, partly because the US markets are closed for a public holiday.

'The market overall is well supported, and I think also tomorrow we will start with the indices going up,' said one trader.

Bulgari gained 4.26 pct to 11.24 eur, with traders not knowing what to attribute the rise to. Some dealers said the share price was supported by technical factors after the shares passed through the 11 eur level.

The company said it was in a black-out period ahead of the release of their fourth-quarter and full-year 2006 results on Jan 31.

In the oil sector, Eni gained 1.13 pct at 24.9 eur, while Saipem was up 1.47 pct at 18.83.

Tenaris was bucking the trend, down 0.71 pct at 19.26 as Gianfelice Rocca, chairman of the Techint Group, which controls Tenaris, said all speculation regarding the entry of a new partner in Tenaris was unfounded.

Rocca also denied that his group is selling its 29.8 pct stake in Impregilo parent company IGLI SpA.

Impregilo shed 0.11 pct at 4.24.

In the telecoms sector, Telecom Italia gained 0.37 pct at 2.38, while Fastweb, which today released preliminary fourth-quarter results, shed 0.76 pct at 45.54.

'It's not so much the results which moved the shares but the fact that the market is betting that (Fastweb major shareholder Silvio) Scaglia will sell his stake in the company,' said one dealer.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Scaglia said he was looking to deepen Fastweb's commercial agreement with the Vodafone Group but denied he was willing to sell his 25 pct stake in the company.

Recently Fastweb outperformed the market on speculation private equity groups were eyeing Scaglia's stake in Fastweb.

Pirelli ended down 1.80 pct at 0.8 after the strong performance last week.

Last week, the share rallied on reports that India's Hinduja Group was considering buying a minority stake in Olimpia, a holding company 80-pct owned by Pirelli that holds 18 pct of Telecom Italia.

Pirelli denied there had been contacts with Hinduja, and the Indian group would not comment the report.

'The fact that Pirelli continues to deny there is something on the horizon for Olimpia is making the market believe that maybe nothing is imminent, and that is bad for Pirelli,' said one dealer.

Alitalia ended down 2.41 pct at 1.05, as unions prepare a national strike Friday that could bring havoc to Italian air transport.

To call off the strike, unions want the government to refer to them on the privatization of the ailing airline.

yael.schrage@thomson.com

ysc/ic

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