Investors are already looking ahead to the ECB meeting
September 11 () –
The Ibex 35 has distanced itself from the declines in Europe and Wall Street this Wednesday by registering a rise of 0.67%, reaching 11,278.9 points, thanks to the boost of Inditex after presenting results and on a day marked by the US CPI for August, while investors’ attention is now shifting to tomorrow’s meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB).
The main indicator of the Spanish market has started the day with significant increases that have allowed it to surpass the 11,300-point mark and, although its advances have been reduced by the opening of Wall Street (at the closing time in Europe, its indices fell by around 1%) and the CPI of that country, in the last stretch it has once again gained strength in the positive sign.
On Wednesday’s macroeconomic agenda, it was announced that the US consumer price index (CPI) stood at 2.5% year-on-year in August, which implies a slowdown of four-tenths compared to the previous figure and its lowest figure since February 2021.
Experts at La Financière de l’Echiquier have commented that, as a consequence of these inflation figures, the Federal Reserve (Fed) could cut rates more sharply by a 50 basis point decrease, although they are leaning towards the option of a 25 point cut for next week.
On the Old Continent, he stressed that the UK economy stagnated last July compared to the previous month, when it already recorded zero growth, although between May and July GDP did grow by 0.5%, according to data published this Wednesday by the National Statistics Office (ONS).
European investors are already waiting for tomorrow’s decision by the European Central Bank (ECB), which is expected to lower interest rates at the first conclave attended by José Luis Escrivá as governor of the Bank of Spain.
In the Spanish business sector, Inditex announced before the market opened that it recorded a net profit of 2.768 billion euros during the first half of its fiscal year 2024-2025 (between February 1 and July 31), which represents an increase of 10.1% compared to the same period a year earlier.
Banco Santander, for its part, has announced that it expects to obtain gross proceeds of 2.463 billion zloty (around 575 million euros) from the sale of 5.2% of its Polish subsidiary, Santander Bank Polska.
For its part, Grifols has expanded the lawsuit it filed in New York against the short-term fund Gotham City Research, and in which, on the other hand, some large shareholders have turned to the Araoz & Rueda law firm to secure a “substantial” premium in the possible takeover bid (OPA) of the Brookfield Asset Management fund and its founding family.
Meanwhile, Aedas Homes’ main shareholder, Castlelake, is considering leaving the company after being a shareholder for more than 10 years and seeing its share price at its highest level for the last three years. Its shares, which are listed on the continuous market, have dropped by around 7%.
Given this situation, Grifols has been the most bullish stock at the close of the session (+6.29%) on the Ibex 35, ahead of Inditex (+4.54%), Solaria (+2.9%), Aena (+1.57%) and Telefónica (+0.79%).
On the other hand, Fluidra (-2.2%), Rovi (-1.77%), Merlín (-1.47%), Indra (-1.02%), Ferrovial (-1.01%), CaixaBank (-1%) and Puig (-0.99%) were the top performers.
The performance of the other major European stock markets was mostly negative: Milan fell by 0.12%, Paris by 0.14% and London by 0.15%. Frankfurt joined Madrid in gains, rising by 0.35%.
On the commodities market, a barrel of Brent crude oil was trading at $70.46 at the European closing time, up 1.8%, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil was trading at $67.22, up 2.24%.
In the debt market, the yield on the 10-year Spanish bond closed at 2.929% after subtracting two basis points. The risk premium (the differential with the German bond) thus stood at 82 points.
The euro was trading unchanged against the dollar, with an exchange rate of 1.1016 dollars per unit of the common currency.
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