Live Markets: On the radar: Vegan rolls and struggling airlines

Exprivia SpA

16/06/2020 07:48

Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters
stocks reporters. You can share your thoughts with Joice Alves (joice.alves@thomsonreuters.com)
and Julien Ponthus (julien.ponthus@thomsonreuters.com) in London and Stefano Rebaudo
(stefano.rebaudo@thomsonreuters.com) in Milan.
    
    
    ON THE RADAR: STRUGGLING AIRLINES (0630 GMT) 
    The vegan roll associated with one of the rare recent success stories of the UK high street
is back! British baker Greggs confirmed plans to reopen 800 shops for takeaway only on June 18.
    Probably not the ultimate V-shaped recovery indicator but a clear sign that the British
economy is slowly opening up again with Cineworld announcing that its theatres would all reopen
by July. 
    That should boost Travel and Leisure shares, which have rebounded over 50% since mid-March,
but it sure seems like there's still quite a lot of turbulence ahead.
    Lufthansa is seeking to strike agreements with worker representatives to make cut the
equivalent of 22,000 full-time jobs while SAS said it needs about $1.3 billion in new funding to
survive the coronavirus pandemic. 
    Things are tough as well for British Airways which faces quite some political pressure after
it was labelled a "national disgrace" by parliament's Transport Select Committee, who said IAG
were trying to take advantage of the coronavirus crisis to cut 12,000 jobs and downgrade the
terms and conditions of other employees.
    Some market action with Zalando shares down 2.3% in early trade after share sale by Sweden’s
Kinnevik. 
    A boost expected for Banknote printer De La Rue which said on Tuesday that Britain's Serious
Fraud Office had closed an investigation into "suspected corruption" in the company's South
Sudan business.
    On the M&A front, telecoms infrastructure company Sirti, a unit of Pillarstone, is
considering making its own offer for the turnaround of rival Italtel, which is controlled by
Exprivia  XPR.MI , Il Sole 24 Ore reported. 
    Another report la Repubblica said Australian infrastructure fund Macquarie has made an offer
to Italian utility Enel for its 50% stake in broadband network operator Open Fiber.
    Spotlight on chip maker Infineon after the German financial markets regulator BaFin said
that shares were being touted illegally.
    
    (Julien Ponthus and Stefano Rebaudo) 
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    MORNING CALL: THE FED 'PUT' DOING ITS MAGIC (0530 GMT) 
    The week started with fresh fears that a second wave of COVID-19 could be on its way and
rock the V-shaped recovery priced in by over-confident investors. 
    Nothing drastic has changed on the pandemic front since Monday morning but the Fed's
decision to apply an indexing approach to its secondary market corporate credit facility did
have a massive effect on sentiment.
    Wall Street closed higher, so did Asia and now Europe is set for a helluva open with futures
surging no less than 3% for the STOXX 50 and the DAX. 
    
    (Julien Ponthus) 
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