MADRID, 29 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Ibex 35 has closed July positively, with an increase of 0.7% compared to the figure at the end of June, and consolidating itself at the level of 8,100 integers, thanks to the boost of the business results presented in recent days and in a month marked by rate hikes by the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Federal Reserve (Fed) of the United States.
If it is compared with the data at the end of 2021, when the selective stood at 8,713.7 points, it falls by around 6% in the semester, affected by the war in Ukraine, high inflation and uncertainty regarding the economic growth. This Friday, the index ended at 8,156.2 integers, with a rise of 0.88%.
High inflation was precisely one of the issues that focused the attention of investors in July. Faced with the new highs that the CPI has marked both in the United States and in Europe, the ECB has begun to react with a first rate hike of 50 basis points –compared to the expected 25 points– while this week the Fed has raised rates another 75 points.
In addition, the approval of a new tax on banks and energy companies has flown over the Spanish selective. The banking sector was initially impacted by the measure, which has been offset by other news, such as the largest rate hike in Europe, or the presentation of business results itself, which has intensified this last week of July.
Today, BBVA has announced that it earned 3,001 million in the first half of the current year, 57% more, and CaixaBank achieved a profit of 1,573 million, 17.1% more on a comparable basis.
The Amadeus group recorded a profit of 341.8 million euros in the first half of the year, compared to losses of 106.7 million before, and IAG reduced its ‘red numbers’ to 654 million until June, compared to losses 2,048 million a year earlier.
The XTB analyst, Joaquín Robles, highlights the good weekly behavior of renewable companies, in the heat of the new interruptions in the supply of Russian gas, which also threatens distribution in winter.
As ‘macro’ references, in Spain today it has been known that the country’s economy accelerated its quarterly growth between April and June, reaching 1.1%, compared to 0.2% in the previous quarter, while the CPI fell two tenths in July in relation to the previous month, but its interannual rate shot up six tenths, to 10.8%, its highest level since September 1984.
In the euro area, GDP growth accelerated to 0.7% in the second quarter, while the year-on-year inflation rate in the euro area stood at 8.9% in July, compared to 8.6% registered in June, which represents the highest increase in prices in the euro region of the entire historical series and more than four times the price stability target of 2% of the European Central Bank (ECB).
In the United States, the GDP data for the second quarter was published yesterday, which experienced a fall of 0.2%, after having already contracted 0.4% in the first three months of the year, which implies that the US economy entered in technical recession.
In today’s session, the Ibex 35 advanced 0.88%, with BBVA (5.97%) leading the rise, followed by Fluidra (5.33%), Merlin (4.28%), Acerinox (4 .19%), Colonial (3.69%), ACS (3.63%), Acciona (3.30%) and ArcelorMittal (3.22%).
In negative territory, PharmaMar (-5.47%), Sacyr (-4.13%), Rovi (-3.04%), Grifols (-2.40%) and Banco Sabadell (-2.22 %).
The rest of the European stock markets have also closed with gains, 1.06% in London, 1.72% in Paris, 1.52% in Frankfurt and 2.16% in Milan.
On the other hand, the price of a barrel of Brent quality oil, a reference for the Old Continent, stood at 110.21 dollars, with an increase of 2.8%, while Texas stood at 100.51 dollars, after rising 4.2%.
Finally, the price of the euro against the dollar stood at 1.0203 ‘greenbacks’, while the risk premium stood at 115 basis points and the return on the 10-year Spanish bond stood at 1.904%.
