Ibex ends with moderate losses after Santander is pushed back 0.9%

Wednesday’s session ended with the Ibex 35 0.07% lower at 10,871.70 points after Banco Santander announced the acquisition of Banco Popular thanks to a capital investment of 7bn euros. The index kept the losses to a minimum at the beginning of the day after a drop of 1.6% in the bank presided over by Ana Botín.

In the end Santander fell by 0.88%, but the worst affected stocks were Sabadell (-2.16%), Inditex (-1.25%) and Grifols (-1.20%). Popular’s shares were suspended and the Ibex committee will put in Catalan real estate firm Colonial to make up the 35 stocks.

Bankia rose by 4.95%, followed by BBVA with a 2.03% rise, Caixabank on 1.49% and Mapfre 1.43%. In relation to the other heavyweights of the index, Telefonica was 0.05% lower, Repsol fell 0.10% while Iberdrola dropped 0.79%.

Other European indices also fell, including the FTSE 100, which was 0.62% lower, the PSI 20 (-0.56%), the DAX 30 (-0.14%) and the CAC 40 (-0.07%).

As well as the news on Popular, oil is falling rapidly on Wednesday. West Texas fell 4.3% to $46.12 and Brent was 3.5% lower at $48.36. Weekly stockpiles of crude in the US showed a rise of 3.29 million barrels, an unexpected rise after experts had predicted a fall of 3.46 million.

The UK remains to the fore this week, just one day before the country’s general election, with polls showing little between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. Investors are still betting on a Conservative victory however, but it is unclear if she has the ability to claim an absolute majority.

In France, recent polls suggest that Emmanuel Macron’s party will achieve an important victory, with the legislature elections taking place in two rounds, one this Sunday and the next on 18 June.

On investors’ radar also is the European Central Bank meeting on Thursday and the diplomatic crisis in Qatar. According to Reuters, the sale of basic products such as oil and food is being hit after only one day of the dispute.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

Bolsamanía technical analyst José María Rodríguez said Wednesday was “very interesting despite closing without much fuss. The morning saw Santander wake up with falls of 3% after informing of the purchase of Popular. It was one cent from the important support of 5.618 euros. For the moment it has not hit that mark, a sign of strength.”

He added that “on the other hand the rest of the bands are gaining, especially BBVA and Bankia. We don’t disregard that the Cantabrian bank will take a small hit from the capital investment (for which we still don’t have a date) and meanwhile in the financial sector and BBVA will head towards annual highs. From the graphic we can see how in the opening minutes of the session it looked like the support would be broken, but the banking sector held it up.”