Ibex 35 regains 10,400 thanks to banking sector, ACS and Repsol

The Ibex surpassed the 10,400 points level it reached last week and closed 0.4% higher on Wednesday (10,402.70 points). It was the second best performing European index after the Portuguese PSI 20. The DAX fell 0.39% and was the worst performer, accompanied by the CAC 40 in red.

The highest riser on Wednesday was ACS after gaining 2.45%, after MacQuarie included it in its list of favourites, followed by Banco Sabadell (2.04%) and Acerinox (1.88%). The rest of the banks also rose with force, such as BBVA (+1.03%), Caixabank (+0.96%), Santander (+0.65%) and Bankinter (+0.46%). Repsol’s performance was also notable (+1.41%).

On the other hand, the biggest fallers on Wednesday were Gamesa (-3.42%), Grifols (-0.83%) and Cellnex (-0.68%). Telefonica and Inditex also finished lower on the day with falls of 0.53% and 0.29% respectively, while Popular registered 0.25% lower after it was hampered by recent turbulence following the resignation of CEO Pedro Larena.

In the general stock exchange, A class shares in Abengoa fell 12.24% to 0.043 euros, while the B class shares dropped 10% to 0.018 euros. Amper was 18.78% higher, Sniace by 18.24% and Deoleo by 12.12%.

Bolsamanía technical analyst José María Rodríguez reckons there will be a correction or adjustment in the short term, while in the medium term it will continue to head upwards. “The Ibex 35 has hit an intraday maximum of 10,467 points. However, it ran out of fuel during the final part of the day and finished in the resistance zone of 10,460 -10,470 points.” Above this would allow us to continue on an upward streak towards the reference of 10,600-10,630.”

On the support side, “the first one we find is at the lows of Tuesday (10,270) and below it is sen at between 9,980 - 10,000. Santander’s flat day leaves open the possibility of that in the next few days the Cantabrian bank filling its higher gap of 5.44 euros.”

Returning to Wednesday’s session, investors remain alert to the political events in the US and Europe. On Tuesday Donald Trump reiterated his promise to cut banking regulations. Moreover, the president will meet with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Thursday and Friday in order to deal with several issues, such as North Korea.

Wall Street was quoting moderate gains at the halfway point, with the Nasdaq 100 seeing historic highs. Among the big stocks Amazon and Apple are at their highest levels in history.

In Europe, candidates for the French presidential election squared off on Tuesday in whichb Emmanuel Macron dealt a crucial blow to far right leader Marine Le Pen.

In the oil market, a barrel of Brent crude fell 0.04% to 54.15 dollars, while US benchmark West Texas fell 0.24% to 50.93 dollars.

Finally, services PMIs were released today for Europe in March, which came out as worse than expected in France and Italy, but better than expected in Germany and Spain. In the eurozone services PMIs were at 56, beneath the 56.5 forecast. Moreover, the minutes from the recent Federal Reserve meeting will become known, in which the entity raised interest rates.