The capitalization of the Italian Stock Exchange falls with respect to GDP. Equity investments are declining, while bond investments are growing. This leads to a reduction in the number of companies listed on the online stock market – the main market in Piazza Affari – and at the same time improves the profitability of Italian listed companies while increasing short sales. This is what emerges from the latest CONSOB Statistical Bulletin for the first half of 2022, which overall describes "a declining securities market, downgraded to the values of the end of 2020, thus nullifying the gains recorded in 2021 due to the robust recovery followed by COVID-19 lockdowns". In the black year of markets, indicators describe an uncertain economic picture, which is affected by negative factors such as the war in Ukraine, soaring inflation, energy-price rises and the aggressive monetary policy of the European Central Bank (ECB) with the rate hike decided by the Eurotower. “The decline in share prices has depressed the overall capitalization of listed Italian companies, which as of June 30 fell by 20.5% on a semi-annual basis. In relation to Gross Domestic Product, the market capitalization therefore decreases from 33% at the end of 2021 to 25.4% at the end of June 2022.
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