As all of Italy mourns one of its most famous figures, the stockmarket has not been swept away with the news, shares in Fiat rising sharply today as Gianni Agnelli, seen as an obstacle to breaking up the group, exits the picture. He was set against selling off the auto division and forcing GM to exercise the "put" option, preferring to see Fiat stay a conglomerate with ownership remaining in Italian hands.

Fiat Spa, Italy's largest company, was founded by Gianni Agnelli's grandfather in 1899. Gianni became Managing Director in 1963 and Chairman in 1966, a post he held for thirty years. A flamboyant playboy he is credited in Italy as the driving force behind Italy's transformation from an agricultural nation in ruins at the end of the Second World War, to the world's 6th largest economy.

He added Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Ferrari and Maserati to the Group as well as diversifying into trucks, agricultural equipment, power generation, aerospace, property, telecommunications and construction. Agnelli was assidiously courted by Italian politicians and his influence reverberated around the corridors of power. In 1991 he was made a life senator in respect to his role in turning Italy into Europe's fourth largest economy, and despite its woes, Fiat accounts for 5% of the Italian economy.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has led the tributes that have come in from all areas of Italian life, "Giovanni Agnelli was a leading figure in Italian life for more than half a century." His body, it is believed, will be taken to the former Fiat Lingotto factory in Turin, now a hotel and shopping mall complex, before a private funeral takes place.

The Pope commented in a letter to the Archbishop of Turin earlier today, "He was an influential protagonist of Italian history and he gave himself generously for the good and the economic and social development of this country". The Pope also assured the cardinal Severino Poletto, who gave Agnelli the Last Rites yesterday, he would personally pray for the famous and lamented Lawyer. I call upon God's goodness to give him eternal peace and I especially bless the relatives and all those cry for his death".

Agnelli was a Patriach in true Italian style, and modelled his clan on his close friends the Kennedy's in the USA. Personal friends that included forner US President John F Kennedy, former US Sectretary of State Henry Kissinger and David Rockerfeller, helped boost the Italian economy and shed its staid provincial image. 

Flags on Fiat buildings, and at Ferrari's HQ, have been lowered to half mast, while the Italian football league will observe a two minute silence before the weekend's matches as a mark of respect for Agnelli, who was also the passionate owner of highly successful Serie A club Juventus. The Italian unions have suspended a two hour strike scheduled for today as a mark of respect.

Fiat shares rose nearly 6% on news of his death this morning as investors sensed that the Group's break up is edging nearer. Agnelli has fought the banks, who lent Fiat €3 billion last summer, in their plans to strip out the industrial giant he built up. His brother Umberto, 68, is now expected to replace Gianni as head of the Agnelli family, and eventually replace current Fiat Group Chairman Paolo Fresco, who is expected to step down in the summer.