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<<YEAREND-POLL-Milan bourse to have bumpy 1998
MILAN, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Milan's stock market looks set for a bumpy ride in 1998, weighed down by the impact of Asian troubles which will be only partly
counterbalanced by lower Italian interest rates and healthy corporate profit growth, a Reuters poll of analysts showed.
The survey of 10 economists, carried out between December 9-12, indicated they expected a ''difficult'' 1998, forecasting the BCI (BCMI.MI) Comit bourse index
growing by only five to 15 percent, far from the record performance of 1997 of a rise around 50 percent.
The authoritative Comit global index (1972=100), calculated once a day after the market close, was 977.15 on Friday December 12, up 52.48 percent on the dame
day in 1996.
The first quarter next year will be crucial ''to determine the real impact of the Asian turbulence on foreign markets'' and the fallout involved for the Italian market,
said Marco Nascimbeni of Merrill Lynch Capital Markets in Milan.>>
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