Italian equities finished lower on Friday, with sector losses concentrated in Financials, Utilities and Industrials driving the market downward.
At the close in Milan, the Investing.com Italy 40 was down 1.81%.
Top performers included Inwit (BIT:INWT), which climbed 5.16% or 0.44 points to finish at 8.87. Tenaris SA (BIT:TENR) added 2.45% or 0.49 points to close at 20.30, and Telecom Italia (BIT:TLIT) rose 2.16% or 0.01 to end the session at 0.64.
Largest decliners were led by banks. Bper Banca SpA (BIT:EMII) fell 5.72% or 0.70 points to 11.55 at the close. Banca Popolare di Sondrio ScpA (BIT:BPSI) declined 5.49% or 0.97 to finish at 16.70, while Banco Bpm SpA (BIT:BAMI) was down 4.43% or 0.55 to end the day at 11.75.
Market breadth on the Milan Stock Exchange showed 390 advancing issues against 344 decliners, with 61 names unchanged.
Notably, shares of Telecom Italia (BIT:TLIT) pushed to five-year highs, gaining 2.16% or 0.01 to reach 0.64 by the close.
Commodity markets presented a mixed picture. Crude oil for March delivery slipped 0.06% or 0.04 to trade at $62.80 a barrel. Brent oil for April delivery moved higher, up 0.18% or 0.12 to $67.64 a barrel. Precious metals saw an uptick as the April Gold Futures contract rose 1.83% or 90.80 to trade at $5,039.20 a troy ounce.
Foreign-exchange and dollar instruments were relatively steady. The euro-dollar pair (EUR/USD) was effectively unchanged, moving 0.02% to 1.19. EUR/GBP was flat to within 0.15% at 0.87. The US Dollar Index Futures slipped 0.06% to 96.78.
The session underscored sector-driven dispersion within the Italian market: pronounced weakness among several financial names contrasted with pockets of strength in telecom and industrial stocks, while commodity and currency moves were modest and mixed.