Ibex closes flat at 10,900 after Popular sinks 18%

Although the bank has not given official dates, the 10 of June is being spoken about as the final day for the receipt of offers for its purchase. El País reported yesterday that this may be extended due to few interested buyers. Reuters also reported that the European banking authorities have speculated about the possibility of an intervention in order to save Popular.

The bank announced the sale of its 48.98% stake in Targobank, and at the same time said that the IMF is not examining its accounts, but the system in general. After Popular, the poorest performers were CaixaBank (-1.4%), Bankia (-0.98%) and Grifols (-0.95%). Among the blue chips, BBVA fell 0.5% and Inditex by 0.23%.

On the positive side, Indra was 4.94% higher after JPMorgan restarted coverage with a Neutral recommendation and target price of 13 euros. The company, which was at 12.96 euros, also announced the launch of SuitAir RAS, a reference system for airlines to improve their deposits and accounts.

After Indra, there was Ferrovial (+2.19%) and Melia hotels (+1.91%). Repsol gained 0.5%, Telefonica by 0.28% and Santander 0.16%.

With regards to monetary policy, the markets are beginning to speculate about the ECB and Federal Reserve meetings on 8 and 14 June. It is expected that Draghi will continue to defend the stimulus but point towards a future normalisation. For the Fed, a rate rise is predicted and it will be key how the market reacts to it.

The UK continues to garner attention. Next Thursday sees the arrival of the general election, the same day as the ECB meeting. There is growing momentum for the Labour party, and it remains to be seen whether Theresa May will be able to achieve the absolute majority her Conservative party will be looking for.

US President Donald Trump is expected to announce a decision today on whether he will pull the country from the Paris climate agreement. With regard to the data of the day, manufacturers’ PMI was better than expected in Germany and Spain, but worse in Italy and France. Wall Street saw moderate gains after better than expected employment figures.

“It seems like summer has arrived, looking at the narrow range of prices showing up in recent sessions. That being said, in the short-term, it seems that the control zones are beginning to stretch, which may be interpreted as the precursor to some volatile movements,” said Bolsamanía technical analyst José María Rodriguez.

“As such, we can say that the Ibex 35 sees a small support at 10,800 points as a round figure and a resistance at 11,000 points. Including Thursday there have now been seven consecutive sessions in which the Ibex has stayed in a range of 200 points. As a result, there is little clue in the last few weeks as to what the next short-term movement will be,” he added.

“The thing is that if we look at our European neighbours such as the DAX and the Euro Stoxx, they are seen “triangulated”, or building decreasing highs and growing lows.”