Milan – The Milan Stock Exchange fell sharply on Thursday, October 22. The benchmark FTSE MIB index lost 2.54 percent at the close of trading, falling to around 48,383 points. As a result, Piazza Affari underperformed the other major European stock exchanges. The market was weighed down by selling in technology and banking stocks, as well as the latest rise in energy prices.
Uncertainty about the returns on heavy investments in artificial intelligence put pressure on technology stocks. Even the quarterly reports from U.S. companies such as Tesla and Meta failed to provide lasting reassurance. At the same time, tensions in the Middle East and rising oil prices heightened concerns that energy costs will remain high and inflation will pick up again.
On the Milan Stock Exchange, cable manufacturer Prysmian and semiconductor testing specialist Technoprobe each lost about 7.6 percent. STMicroelectronics fell 4.9 percent. Among energy service providers, Saipem dropped six percent and Tenaris fell about five percent. The losses thus affected several sectors and were not limited to individual technology companies.
Milan Stock Exchange: Banks Fall, Yield Spread Widens
Italian banks also came under selling pressure. UniCredit fell 4.7 percent, Monte dei Paschi di Siena 4.3 percent, and Banco BPM 4.2 percent. Intesa Sanpaolo lost 3.8 percent, and Bper 3.3 percent. Bucking the general trend, Moncler rose 2.6 percent and Brunello Cucinelli gained 1.5 percent, among others.
The yield spread between 10-year Italian BTP government bonds and comparable German Bundesanleihen widened to 124 basis points at the close, up from 115 the previous evening. The yield on Italian bonds stood at 4.57 percent; the comparable German yield fell by eight basis points to 3.33 percent. The wider spread was thus not accompanied by a corresponding rise in the closing yield on Italian bonds.
Outside Italy, too, the markets closed lower: Paris fell 1.39 percent, Frankfurt 1.07 percent, and London 0.26 percent.
