Aug. 1 () –
The Ibex 35 recorded its worst session since April 30, losing 1.90% of its capitalisation in just one day, equivalent to around 210 points, so that the index closed the day at 10,854.3 points.
The correction in the selective index of Spanish stock markets has been caused by the banking sector, with significant falls of between 3% and more than 5.6% for all listed financial institutions.
Investors have digested the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision today. The Fed decided yesterday to maintain interest rates within the target range of 5.25% to 5.5% for the eighth consecutive meeting, the highest since January 2001.
However, central bank chairman Jerome Powell suggested that the first cut could come at the meeting on 18 September. Analysts at Renta 4 point out, however, that he did not commit to a specific pace or amount.
“The meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, from August 22 to 24, with new data in hand, could be the forum to explicitly announce the start of rate cuts in September,” they added.
Continuing with monetary policy, the Bank of England decided on Thursday to lower the reference interest rate for its operations by 25 basis points, which will thus be 5%, which is the first rate cut since March 2020.
“Inflationary pressures have now eased sufficiently for us to have been able to cut interest rates today,” the institution said in its monetary policy report, published at the same time as the rate decision, which was “delicately balanced” as risks of higher inflation persist.
On the other hand, before the opening of the stock market in Spain, the steel giant ArcelorMittal reported a net profit attributable to 1,442 million dollars (1,332 million euros) in the first half of 2024, which represents a fall of 51.2% compared to the result recorded in the first six months of the previous year.
Fluidra, for its part, closed the first half of the year with a net profit of 112 million euros, 8% more than in the same period of the previous year.
In addition, Cellnex closed the first half of 2024 with net losses of €418 million through June, more than double (+113.2%) than a year earlier, due to the classification of its assets in Austria as held for sale, as the company is in advanced negotiations after receiving binding offers. The firm could consider a dividend distribution or early share buyback, subject to its leverage and credit rating after selling its assets in Austria.
On the macro front, it was announced on Thursday that the expansion of activity in Spanish factories slowed in July to a six-month low, according to the purchasing managers’ index (PMI).
The unemployment rate in the eurozone stood at 6.5% last June, one-tenth higher than the figure for May, when it marked its lowest level since the beginning of the series in 1999, which represents the first increase in the unemployment level in the region since September 2023, according to data published by Eurostat.
In Thursday’s session, the stock that came out worst was Banco Sabadell (-5.61%), followed by BBVA (-5.09%), ArcelorMittal (-4.73%), Banco Santander (-4.43%), Rovi (-4.21%), Sacyr (-3.86%) and CaixaBank (-3.75%).
Among the few stocks that have registered increases this Thursday, the clear leader has been Fluidra, rising by 8.55%. Behind them were Cellnex (+4.29%), Acciona Energía (+1.49%), Solaria (+1.36%) and Colonial (+0.47%).
The ‘Black Thursday’ has been common among the main European stock markets. London has fallen by 1.01%; Paris, by 2.14%; Frankfurt, by 2.30% and Milan, by 2.68%.
On the commodities market, a barrel of Brent crude oil was trading at $80.24, down 0.74%, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil was trading at $77.09, down 1.05%.
As regards debt, the yield on the 10-year Spanish bond has fallen to 3.092%, from 3.116% at the close on Wednesday. The risk premium has thus risen by 3.6 points to 84.8 basis points.
At the close of trading in Europe, the euro was trading at a 0.35% loss against the dollar, reaching an exchange rate of 1.0789 euro for each unit of the common currency.
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