Stock market: A week of losses for Europe amid fears of inflation and rising yields; Milan down 2.7 per cent

Banks down, tech shares up. Oil and the euro fall

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - It has been a turbulent week as the final quarter of the year got underway for the European stock markets, which ended the week in the red. Inflation was very much in the market spotlight, having risen to a three-year high in the Eurozone in September. And it is precisely because of fears of persistent inflation that global bond yields have hit new multi-year highs in recent trading sessions. The French 10-year OAT rose by 3 per cent this week and the Italian BTP by 1.34 per cent, whilst the spread between BTPs and Bunds widened by 23 basis points.

Turning back to the equity markets, the FTSE MIB in Milan is down 2.7 per cent, whilst the IBEX in Madrid (-3.1 per cent), the CAC in Paris (-2.2 per cent), the FTSE 100 in London (-2.2 per cent) and the DAX in Frankfurt (-0.7 per cent). Technology was the focus of buying activity over the past week, posting a 5.3 per cent gain across Europe. Among the best performers on the Eurostoxx 50 were Infineon, up 14 per cent, and ASML, up 8.6 per cent. Conversely, banks were the hardest hit in Europe, with the sector falling by 4.9% over the week and by 3.6% in the last two trading sessions alone.

It was the same story on the Milan Stock Exchange, where shares linked to artificial intelligence took centre stage, following Micron Technology’s impressive quarterly results on Wall Street, which provided reassurance regarding the sector’s prospects: +16.3% for Technoprobe, +11.6% for ST, +6% for Prysmian. Fincantieri also performed well (+2.9%), benefiting from expectations regarding European defence spending. By contrast, there was heavy selling in TIM (-11.5%) and among the banks: Banco BPM down 7.2 per cent, Intesa Sanpaolo down 6.8 per cent, UniCredit down 6.1 per cent and BPER down 5.9 per cent.

Crude oil prices have eased slightly, with Brent falling by 2.9 per cent.