Business Notes Italy

What would Marx and Lenin think? In an act of ideological heresy, L'Unita, the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party, has started to print capitalism's most closely watched barometer: the daily stock report. For the first time in its 61-year history, the Rome-based daily (circ. 200,000) is including the closing prices for all 212 issues traded on the Milan stock exchange, Italy's largest, as well as quotations for gold, silver and treasury bonds. L'Unita's decision to take a page from the Wall Street Journal was partly a response to the paper's changing readership. It used to be mostly working class, says Financial Editor Renzo Stefanelli, but now includes "many executives in private business firms and cooperatives." Moreover, the Communists are trying to broaden their appeal after suffering sharp losses in Italy's elections last May and June.

The Communist paper's new service could hardly have been more timely. Since January the Milan stock exchange's main index has surged from 1000, to close last week at 1769. Karl Marx might have found L'Unita's financial listings useful. After all, he used to speculate on the London stock exchange.