European Indices Struggle to Find Direction on Friday Morning

European indices have been rising and falling, some several times, with a tight band as muted trading has led to a lack of commitment to any particular trajectory. With the big Fed announcement now out of the way and the last week of trading before the Christmas and New Year break on the horizon, European equity markets appear to be in an indecisive mood.

The last half hour or so is showing some signs of promise that the end of the week might lead to modest Friday gains in the end for most indices but it remains to be seen if that will hold into the afternoon when profit taking may be a factor following a generally positive week.

In Italy, the FTSE MIB is marginally up at present, by 0.09%, after a morning when it has already seen 3 peaks and 2 dips.

After a good week for the index’s banks, today most of them are sitting on minor losses or gains going into lunchtime. UniCredit (+0.21%), Intesa Sanpaulo (+0.33%), Banca Pop Milano (+0.05%) and Monte Paschi Siena (+0.87%) are up, while Mediolanum (-0.29%), Banco Popolare (-0.17%), Bper Banca (-0.4%) and Ubi Banca (-0.87%) are slightly down.

Finecobank is the only mover in the sector with a difference of more than 1%, down 1.27%.

In a positive sign for the end of the week, the day’s biggest movers are all to the plus side with insurer Generali up 2.75%, fashion brand Salvatore Ferragamo 2.25% to the good and Telecom Italia showing a return of 2.15%. The telecom company also had a positive day yesterday. Chairman Giuseppe Rechi yesterday felt moved to distance his company from the acrimonious takeover attempt of Italian pay-tv company and fellow MIB component Mediasat by French media giant Vivendi.

The day’s biggest riser so far was one of yesterday’s worst performers, with residential property giant Buwog up 2.62%. Commercial real estate investor Immofinanz is also up by 1.67%. Insurance peers Vienna Insurance Group and UNIQA are also having strong sessions with respective returns of 2.4% and 1.62% so far. Raffeisen Bank is up 1.07%, integrated oil and gas company OMV 1.8% and brick and roof tile maker Weinerberger 1.45%.

There aren’t any particularly heavy fallers so far today but caterer Do & Co does lead the losers, down 1.23%. Textiles company Lenzing is down 0.84% and Telekom Austria 0.76%.

Amsterdam’s AEX is 0.39% up following a rise over the last hour. Telecoms company Altice is the day’s strongest performer to date with a gain of 2.08%. The company announced last week that it was considering an IPO to spin off its U.S. cable assets. Pharmaceuticals company Galapagos, a specialist in small molecule medicines is 1.35% up while fast moving consumer goods giant Unilever has a return of 1.06%.

Shopping mall owner and operator Unibail Rodamco, which had fallen in previous days as a result of the Fed’s 3 projected 2017 interest rate hikes, is up 1.12%. Real estate investment companies tend to have a higher than average debt burden and are particularly sensitive to interest rate changes.