Banks push Piazza Affari in red

After a positive start, the markets, returning from yesterday’s rally, preferred caution in the wake of the rate hikes launched by the central banks of the United States and the United Kingdom (both increased the benchmark by 25 basis points) and the situation in Ukraine . As the hours go by, hopes of an agreement that will put an end to hostilities in the short term are fading. The White House has announced that President Biden will hear his Chinese counterpart Xi by telephone. As already happened, geopolitical tensions have spilled over the banking sector: on the Ftse Mib, which finished in the red by 0.66% at 24,123.58 points , sales on Banco Bpm (-4.9%), UniCredit (-4.48%) and Intesa Sanpaolo (-3.54%) stand out. Letter also to Stellantis (-2.28%) which in February , on the European market, registered a drop in registrations of 17.5% per year (-5.4% for the market). With a + 7.75%, the best performance on the blue chip basket was recorded by DiaSorin: the company closed 2021 with a net profit of 310.7 million euros, + 25.1% compared to a year earlier, and revenues of 1,237.7 million, + 40.4%. Money also on energy (+ 4.1% by Saipem, which was awarded a new contract in Norway worth 325 million dollars, + 3.67% by Tenaris and + 2.66% by Eni) in the wake of an oil that , after three sessions in strong red, the share increased by 8.6 percentage points to 103.85 dollars a barrel. (In collaboration with Money.it).