The Ibex 35 erases losses at midday and trades flat at around 11,800 points

September 25 () –

The Ibex 35 erased its opening losses at midday on Wednesday and moved to minimal gains (+0.01%), reaching 11,841.2 points, on a day in which a non-monetary policy meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) will be held.

The Spanish index had started trading with half-percentage point declines, but shortly afterward it began an upward trend that allowed it to turn positive just at midday.

In this way, the index remains at 2015 levels and is heading towards the milestone of consolidating the highs of January 2010, a level marked at 11,866 points and which it managed to briefly surpass in the opening auction of yesterday’s session.

As part of the macroeconomic agenda for this Wednesday, it has been published that industrial prices fell by 1.3% last August compared to the same month in 2023, compared to the 1.6% decline experienced in July, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

On the other hand, the Spanish economy will grow this year and next well above the estimated average for the eurozone, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which has revised upwards its forecast for the expansion of Spain’s gross domestic product (GDP) for 2024 to 2.8% and to 2.2% for 2025.

On a global scale, the OECD has revised upwards its growth forecast for the world economy in 2024 by one tenth, which it now places at 3.2%, although it has maintained the forecast for next year at 3.2%.

Investors will also be keeping an eye on statements from Elizabeth McCaul, a member of the ECB supervisory board.

On the business front, the Minister for Economy, Trade and Business, Carlos Cuerpo, said on Wednesday that there is no new element of assessment on the table that has made him change his opinion of opposing the takeover bid (OPA) launched by BBVA for Banco Sabadell and its subsequent merger: “Without new information, we are at the same point.”

As for other corporate operations in Europe, it is worth noting that Italian bank UniCredit has said it will not apply for a seat on the board of its rival Commerzbank, even though the Italian bank could become the largest shareholder in the German bank if the regulator authorises its 21% stake.

Given this situation, in the mid-term of trading, the biggest rise within the Ibex 35 was recorded by Fluidra, which rose 2.37%, followed by CaixaBank (+1.3%), Amadeus (+1.05%) and Bankinter (+0.86%).

On the other hand, on the decline side, Acerinox stood out, losing 1.1%, Acciona Energía (-0.86%), Endesa (-0.68%), Iberdrola (-0.66%) and Puig (-0.5%).

The main European stock markets were trading in mixed directions at midday: Paris was down 0.35% and Frankfurt 0.47%, while Milan was up 0.1% and London 0.18%.

At the same time, the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil, the benchmark for the Old Continent, stood at $74.7, down 0.6%, while Texas crude fell 0.7% to $71.05.

On the currency market, the euro was quoted against the dollar at 1.1185 greenbacks, while on the debt market, the interest rate on 10-year bonds rose slightly to 2.935%, with the risk premium (the differential with the German bond) at 77.5 points.