Ferrari Hits Record High as Italy Exporters Snub Renzi’s Exit

(Bloomberg) -- Ferrari NV rose to a record high in Milan trading as investors bought shares of companies which have high exports to countries outside Europe after the euro’s slump following Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s resignation.

The luxury super-carmaker, which sells 95 percent of its vehicles outside Italy, rose as much as 2.6 percent to 52.1 euros, giving the company a market value of 10 billion euros ($10.6 billion).

The iconic Italian company, which sold its final LaFerrari hybrid supercar for $7 million Dec. 3 at an auction in the U.S., was among exporters which rose in Milan trading after Renzi announced his resignation earlier today following his crushing defeat in a constitutional referendum. That pushed the euro to its lowest level in 20 months.

Fiat Chrysler, which generates the lion’s share of its profits in North America, also was suspended after gaining more than 8 percent. Analysts at Mediobanca today recommended playing Italian stocks through companies exposed to the U.S. market such as automakers, pharmaceutical companies as well as luxury-goods makers.

"Americans love Ferraris and with such a strong dollar it is going to be cheaper for them to buy Italian supercars," said Vincenzo Longo a strategist at IG in Milan. "Generally speaking, a weaker Euro is good news for the Italian exporters such as Fiat, Luxottica and Moncler."

Sergio Marchionne, chief executive officer of both Ferrari and Fiat, said last month that a stronger dollar would help the performance of both companies. Ferrari, which builds all of its cars at the Maranello plant in northern Italy, ships about a third of its supercars to North America.

--With assistance from Francesca Cinelli To contact the reporter on this story: Tommaso Ebhardt in Milan at tebhardt@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vidya Root at vroot@bloomberg.net, Dan Liefgreen, Angela Cullen