Ibex falls 0.39% in January after four straight days of losses

The Ibex 35 closed January with a sour taste, as it was not able to finish above its starting level after gaining until the last few days of the month. Once again, the main Spanish index failed in its assault on 9,550.

Even despite the push of the banking sector, which served as a catalyst in the last few weeks, the Ibex could not push through in positive. The index fell in the last four sessions, after hitting above 9,600 on Thursday but ending up on the losing side the same day. On Tuesday it closed 0.49% lower to 9,315.20 points.

"The banking sector has been facing pressure in the last few days. The results of Santander last week were clearly positive. Tomorrow we will find out BBVA's finances, a bank seriously exposed to two volatile currencies, the Mexican peso and the Turkish lira," said IG analyst Daniel Pingarrón.

The worst performers were ArcelorMittal (-2.7%) and IAG (-2.51%), while the highest risers were DIA (+2.54%) and Iberdrola (+0.57%). Among the blue chips, Santander dropped 1.04%, Repsol by 0.76%, BBVA by 0.6% and Telefonica by 0.32%.

Meanwhile, investors are still alert to movements in the United States with fear of increased protectionism. Wall Street fell for the fourth consecutive day, although it should be pointed out that it did hit historic highs last week.

However, Peter Navarro, the new head of the National Trade Council, said on Tuesday that Germany had taken advantage of the low valuation of the euro in order to boost its exports. The euro continues to rebound against the dollar and rises 0.5% to above 1.07 dollars.

With respect to central banks, the first big decision of the week was the Bank of Japan, which met this morning and maintained interest rates at -0.1%, as forecast by the market. It will be followed by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday and the Bank of England on Thursday.

In Spain, the economic news of the day centred on the strong return of inflation off the back of the rise in oil prices. The annual rate of CPI shot up by 3% in January, which is the highest rise since October 2012. The minister of the economy Luis de Guindos put forward a plan to end public services' connection with CPI.

TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

"Tuesday's session does not have serious implications as the Ibex closed practically the same, as it has done for the month. As can be seen by the graph, we have a small resistance gap of between 9,504 and a support zone of 9,250," said Bolsamania technical analyst José María Rodríguez.

"It has been like that for two months, moving laterally without breaching many support bases or resistances. It can be said that (for the moment) we are hanging on at the best rate of the Eurostoxx 50."