Trend of Indices
The Mib index - with 8 positive and 14 negative sessions - closed the month at 16,208, down 4.4% on December. The Nuovo Mercato's Numex index recorded a smaller decline of 3.5%. The continuous indices showed a homogeneous trend: Mibtel -3.9%, Mib30 -3.8%, Midex -4.7%.
Among the European exchanges, the Italian market performed better than the Swiss (-4.5%), German (-5.0%) and UK (-8.5%) markets and was out-performed by the Spanish (-1.5%), French (-2.9%) and Swedish (-3.1%) markets.
The macrosectors revealed a differentiated trend with the decline in Services (-2.1%) being more restrained than that of Financial (-4.2%) and Industrial (-7.2%). Among the principal sectors (those equal to at least 1% of capitalisation) standing out are Auto (+2.4%) and Real Estate (+1.3%), and Machinery and Mechanical (-14.8%), Media (-8.5%) and Mineral (-8.5%).
Volatility appears to be stable at the level of previous months: 20.7% for Borsa (where it remains significantly more restrained in the STAR segment, equal to 7.6%) and 30.2% for Nuovo Mercato.
Capitalisation and Stock-Exchange list
Capitalisation of the domestic companies listed was €439.2 billion (equal to 33.4% of GDP).
The market allocation saw Borsa at €428.2 billion, Nuovo Mercato at €6.2 and Mercato Ristretto at €4.8.
Borsa had four revocations (Banco Napoli savings shares, following its merger with San Paolo-IMI, La Fondiaria ordinary and savings shares following its merger with SAI, Ferretti e Calp, after the take-over bid launched at the end of 2002) while Nuovo Mercato had one (OnBanca, following its merger with Unicredito Italiano).
The number of listed companies is 290: 233 for Borsa (6 of which foreign), 43 for Nuovo Mercato (1 foreign) and 13 for Mercato Ristretto.
Following 525 admissions and 245 delistings, the number of instruments listed on the MCW (Market for Covered Warrant) rose from 3,571 to 3,851.
Trades
Share trading (153,300 contracts and €2.46 billion per day) increased with respect to December; the comparison with January 2002 shows a growth of 5.8% in terms of contracts and 15.9% for turnover.
The daily average was 140,400 contracts and €2.41 billion for shares listed on Borsa, and 12,600 contracts and €42.3 million for those of Nuovo Mercato.
The average size of share contracts (Borsa, daytime session) was stable at December's levels (€17,500 compared to €17,400).
Like December, STMicroelectronics - often first for number of contracts traded - was the most traded stock in terms of turnover, with 12.1% of total trades, followed by Tim (11.7%) and Eni (11.3%).
Trading of covered warrants showed stability in terms of turnover (daily average of €38.5 million, down 5.6% on December), whereas the number of contracts traded declined (daily average 18,900, down 14.0% on December).
After-hours trading recorded a daily average of 5,900 contracts and €26.1 million in turnover.
In January, ETFs (traded since the end of September) recorded total trading for 1,985 contracts and €67.7 million, which was stable with respect to December. A relatively high average size of contracts (€34,100) denotes the clear predominance - in these initial phases - of the participation of professional institutional investors over retail investors.
The volume of trading infixed-income securities on the MOT (the electronic market for Italian Government securities and non-convertible bonds) recorded significant growth: for government securities, the daily average rose to €531 million (up 3.3% on December) while for private bonds it increased to €42 million (+27.0%).
The EuroMOT (the electronic market for Euro-bonds, bonds from foreign issuers and Asset Backed Securities) experienced strong growth in trading, more than double compared to December. The daily average rose to 678 contracts (up 118.7% on December and up 143.0% compared to January 2002) and €16.8 million (up 128.5% on December and up 63.1% with respect to January 2002). The intense trading activity - which had already tripled the levels of the previous year in 2002 - brought the EuroMOT to representing more than a quarter of the Italian private bond market, with just 22 listed securities. In January, new records for trades in a single session were established several times, reaching the definitive number of 1,004 contracts and €27.0 million on Tuesday the 14th.
The trading volume of the IDEM equity derivatives decreased slightly from December's levels, but remained above the average values of the previous year and the corresponding month of January.
Mib 30 futures recorded a daily average of 18,300 standard contracts; the miniFIB stabilised at 10,400 standard contracts (third highest month ever); Mib30 options dropped to an average of 10,300 standard contracts. Stock futures, traded on five underlying shares since the end of July 2002 and on another two (Generali and STMicroelectronics) since 20 January 2003, increased to a daily average of 716 standard contracts (up 153.3% on December and almost 40% higher than last year's average), whereas stock options remained substantially stable at 27,500 standard contracts per day.
