Italian shares set to plummet
This was the grim picture as the FTSE MIB closed yesterday:
(Source: Yahoo! Finance)
Allister Heath wrote on Italy's election woes in his column today:
Italy has spoken. Few in the City like what they are hearing, but they should listen carefully. Bond yields, which had fallen when it was thought the centre-left was cruising to victory, shot back up when it emerged that Silvio Berlusconi and a new, populist protest party were doing well.
This bitterly divided vote is not so much against “austerity” – though that is a big part – as it is a general howl of rage at the establishment, at high unemployment and economic failure, at high taxes, at mismanagement and political incompetence, at corruption, at technocratic rule, at Brussels, and at lots of other things. Many of the grievances are, of course, contradictory but it is striking just how few votes the supposedly sainted but now humiliated Mario Monti received, how well Berlusconi – who is hated by the EU establishment – did and the anti-euro comedian Beppe Grillo’s remarkable showing. The majority of voters voted for a Eurosceptic party, something which could well end up blowing the Eurozone crisis up again.
(Full article).
IG's Chris Weston predicts the MIB will open down over 400 points:
Still a few hours to go but we are calling the FTSE 6255 -100, DAX 7645 -128, CAC 3624 -97, IBEX 7987 – 257 and MIB 15910 -410
— Chris Weston (@ChrisWeston_IG) February 26, 2013