Milan shares slightly lower at midday; Fastweb slumps while Alitalia shines

Milan shares slightly lower at midday; Fastweb slumps while Alitalia shines

	Published : Wed, 17 Jan 2007 13:36 By : Agencies Print this Story

MILAN (AFX) - Share prices were slightly lower at midday, led by Fastweb as the speculative interest in the company unwinds, while Alitalia was higher amid heightened speculative interest, dealers said.

At 1.00 pm, the Mibtel index was down 0.09 pct at 32,319 and the S&P/Mib fell 0.16 pct at 42,046, while volumes stood at around 1.88 bln eur.

'There has been some profit taking on single shares, but overall the market is well positioned ahead of key US data later today and quarterly corporate results from the US,' said Davide Manenti, analyst at Nuovi Investimenti SIM.

Later today, US December producer prices and industrial output, and capacity utilization figures are due out.

Among the leading losers were Fastweb, down 3.37 pct at 41.56 after yesterday's announcement that the company's largest shareholder Silvio Scaglia sold 6.25 pct of his 25 pct stake to Unicredito Italiano SpA's UBM on Monday.

Scaglia is committed to not selling his remaining stake for at least 12 months and today the company's CEO Stefano Parisi said Scaglia will probably hang on to his shares also after the lock-up.

Today, Citigroup downgraded the shares to 'sell' from 'hold' with a 37.3 target price, while HSBC reiterated its 'outperform' on the stock with a 55 eur target.

Capitalia shares fell 1.85 pct to 7.00 after Cheuvreux's downgrade from 'outperform' to 'underperform' and a reduction in the target price to 7.4 eur from 8 eur.

Other banking shares were in positive territory with BPI down 0.07 pct at 11.40 and BPVN gaining 0.08 pct to 22.99, despite reports that the Bank of Italy has called a review of the terms of their proposed merger.

Tenaris fell 1.6 pct to 18.29 as speculation unwinds about a possible takeover bid and as oil prices stabilize at lower levels.

Saipem fell 0.81 pct to 18.32 eur while Eni bucked the trend, up 0.04 pct at 24.71.

On the positive side, Alitalia was up 2.7 pct at 1.06 after the pilots decided to scrap Thursday's strike and after the resignation of Jean-Cyril Spinetta, Air France-KLM's representative on the airline's board.

'The outlook is still speculative, but it is possible to see further share rises,' Manenti said.

Cement producers were also higher, with Buzzi Unicem gaining 1.36 pct to 22.3 after ING initiated coverage with a 'hold' and target price of 23.2 eur.

Italcementi was up 1.88 pct at 22.65 after CA Cheuvreux raised the target price on its unit Ciments Francais to 190 eur from 175 eur while reiterating the '2 outperform' rating.

ASM Brescia was up 1.81 pct at 4.27 after Citigroup upped the target price to 4.4 eur from 3.75 eur while confirming the 'buy' on the shares.

Football club Juventus was down 2.42 pct at 1.81 as analysts believe a capital hike may be necessary to fund the acquisition of key players.

Water stocks were in focus after speculation of a reorganization of the water assets of non-listed local utility Iride.

Acque Potabili was down 3.22 pct at 20.7 while Mediterranea delle Acque slumped 3.98 pct at 4.15, after yesterday's strong rally.

yael.schrage@thomson.com

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