(Alliance News) - On Monday, on a quiet day macroeconomically and with Chinese lysines closing for New Year celebrations, European stock markets are expected to rise but without strong momentum.

"After two weeks of strong gains, European markets have given up some of the early momentum this year with a modest decline last week, and some suggest that we may have seen peaks in the near term, similar to what we saw last year. Nevertheless, financial markets seem to be increasingly convinced that central banks are poised for a significant shift in monetary policy by the end of the year, a view that seems to be receiving further support now that some Fed policymakers seem to be comfortable with the idea of a further reduction in the central bank rate hike cycle to 25 percentage points next week," commented Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

"Looking ahead to the new week, most of the focus will be on the latest set of earnings reports, as investors try to decide whether the current strong set of earnings can continue and how far central banks are willing to go to control inflation," Hewson added.

Thus, futures give the FTSE Mib up 62.5 points or up 0.2 percent after closing up 0.7 percent at 25,775.52 Friday night.

Paris' CAC 40 is expected to be up 8.2 points or 0.1 percent, as is Frankfurt's DAX 40 up 48.5 points or 0.3 percent, while London's FTSE 100 is expected to be in fractional green at 2.5 points.

Among Italy's smaller lists on Friday, the Mid-Cap rallied 1.3 percent to 42,797.31, the Small-Cap closed up 0.7 percent to 29,602.71, and Italy Growth finished in the green 0.2 percent to 9,545.89.

On the main list in Piazza Affari, stocks on Friday were mainly bullish and it was Saipem that led the way, up 8.6 percent, after announcing on Friday that it had been awarded two offshore contracts totaling about USD900 million.

Assicurazioni Generali closed up 2.3 percent after announcing Thursday evening that it will initiate a buyback of its own shares to be used to execute the group's long-term incentive plan.

The buyback was authorized by the shareholders' meeting and is for the purchase of a maximum number of treasury shares of 10.5 million.

Also doing well was UniCredit, which finished in the green by 2.3 percent. The stock was given a recommendation by Jefferies, which raised its target price to EUR21.00 from EUR19.00 with a 'buy' recommendation, and by Oddo BHF, which raised its target price to EUR16.30 from EUR15.30 with a 'neutral' rating.

At the bottom are Amplifon, down 2.7 percent, Intesa Sanpaolo, down 1.9 percent, and A2A, down 1.8 percent.

On the Mid-Cap, Juventus rallied 0.4 percent despite the announcement by the prosecutor's office of the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio that it has requested a nine-point penalty following the investigation into the club's fictitious capital gains.

As La Gazzetta dello Sport reported Friday, given the seriousness of the facts alleged and the impact it has had from a sporting point of view on the championships, the prosecutor's request is for a truly afflictive penalty that would keep Juventus out of Europe.

Credem closed up 4.6 percent after Jefferies and Deutsche Bank Research raised the target price to EUR7.60 from EUR7.40 and to EUR9.30 from EUR6.90, respectively. In addition, DB also upgraded Credem to 'buy' from 'hold'.

Banca Popolare di Sondrio finished up 1.4 percent. Jefferies also raised the target price on this stock, this time to EUR5.20 from EUR5.00 with a 'buy' recommendation.

Industrie De Nora was among the best on the list and rallied 3.9 percent. Marble Bar Asset Management on Thursday cut its short on the stock to 0.75 percent from 0.97 percent.

On top, however, was GVS, which closed up 5.8 percent followed by Piaggio, in the green by 4.9 percent.

On the smallcap list, algoWatt, Enervit and The Italian Sea Group were at the top, up 7.6 percent, 5.7 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively.

Newlat Food closed in a tie. On Thursday, it reported preliminary consolidated revenues for 2022 of EUR730 million, up 17 percent organic year-on-year from EUR625 million reported at the end of fiscal year 2021 and up 128 percent from fiscal year 2019 when revenues were EUR320 million, the year of listing in the STAR segment of the Italian stock exchange.

SIT closed in the green by 2.9 percent after announcing Friday that sales realized in 2022 amounted to EUR387.6 million up 3.3 percent from EUR375.2 million in 2021.

For the Heating division, realized sales in the year ending Dec. 31, 2022 are EUR315 million, up 5.6 percent from EUR298.2 million in 2021, while for the Metering division in 2022 sales are EUR72.6 million, down 5.7 percent from EUR77.0 million in 2021.

Among SMEs, SCK Group announced on Thursday that through Sciuker Frames - in the red by 0.9% - it has established the first Made in Italy design window and sunscreen cluster, and that "SCK Force Srl," a wholly owned subsidiary of Sciuker Frames, has been established.

The new company is assigned the task of centralizing all sales and marketing activities of the new and ambitious SCK Windows Stores project.

Racing Force--down 0.4 percent--reported Friday that Nehoc Systems sold 4,210 shares in the company.

The shares were sold at an average price of EUR5.3502 for a consideration of EUR22,524.34.

Mondo TV Suisse - down 1.8 percent - announced Friday that Balocco, a leading Italian company in its sector based in Fossano, in the province of Cuneo, has acquired from the same Mondo TV Suisse a license for the territory in Italy, San Marino and the Vatican, Canton Ticino and Malta for the exploitation of licensing and merchandising rights of the property Bread Barber Shop - in Italy the series is aired under the title 'Il Barbiere Pasticciere' - for confectionery products.

At the top was Illa, which closed in the green by 25 percent, followed by Alfonsino, up 12 percent.

In Asia, the Nikkei closed 1.8 percent green at 22,044.65, while the Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite did not trade due to Chinese New Year celebrations.

In New York on Friday, the Dow Jones closed 1.0 percent green at 33,375.49, the S&P gained 1.9 percent to 3,972.61, and the Nasdaq picked up 2.7 percent to 11,140.44.

Among currencies, the euro changed hands at USD1.0908 versus USD1.0836 at Friday's close. In contrast, the pound is worth USD1.2406 from USD1.2375 on Friday evening.

Among commodities, Brent crude is worth USD87.61 per barrel from USD86.80 per barrel Friday night. Gold, on the other hand, trades at USD1,924.15 an ounce from USD1,925.38 an ounce last session.

On Monday's economic calendar, no events are scheduled from China and Hong Kong, both closed for Chinese New Year.

At 1500 CET, there will be a BTF auction in France while at 1600 CET the eurozone consumer confidence index is expected.

At 1845 CET, ECB President Christine Lagarde will give a speech.

Among companies listed on the Stock Exchange, the results of Compagnia dei Caraibi are expected.

By Claudia Cavaliere, Alliance News reporter

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