Sabadell rises 2% after publishing quarterly results
The Ibex 35 closed the week with slight losses of 0.09% on Friday to finish on 9,502.10 points. In a volatile session in which it fell 1% and marked an inter-day low of 9,420, the index recuperated in the latter part of the day after rising 1.32% this week.
In Friday's session, earnings reports were the news once again. In Spain, after Santander and Bankinter this week, Sabadell was next up. It increased its net income by 0.3% to 710 million euros, which was lower than expected. The bank was the second best performer in the Ibex, rising 2.05%, behind Melia Hotels (+2.15%).
On the other side, the worst performers were Mapfre (-1.24%) and Acciona (-1.21%). The heavier stocks in the Ibex mostly finished negative. Repsol dropped 0.77%, Telefonica 0.72%, Iberdrola 0.52%, BBVA 0.45% and Santander 0.09%.
In Europe, UBS reported a lower net profit compared with the same quarter last year. The bank, which fell 4.5%, blamed macroeconomic and geopolitical reasons for the results.
TRUMP, ALWAYS TRUMP
The market keeps looking towards US President Donald Trump and surprising with its movements. It seems as if stocks are pleased by his effectiveness after signing executive orders to put into place his campaign promises. The first diplomatic crisis has arrived after The Mexican President cancelled their scheduled Washington meeting in response to a war of words between the two over the construction of a border wall. Trump met with British PM Theresa May on Friday, with May saying that "opposites attract".
The tensions related to Mexico keep affecting BBVA. Yesterday, while the Ibex rose slightly, BBVA fell 1%. It remains to be seen how its results will turn out next week, with the "floor clause" scandal likely to affect its figures as well.
At the economic level, the GDP of the US for the fourth quarter was released, a rise of 1.9% which was lower than the 2.2% expected. Wall Street was quoting moderate losses, even though the Dow Jones was able to hold on to the historic 20,000 mark.
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
"Despite the fact we experienced lows of almost 1% it was an interesting session that leaves us with a good impression," explains José María Rodríguez, technical analyst for Bolsamanía.
"If you remember, on Wednesday we saw important gains with a higher gap of 9,387 points, and we said that the only downside of the day was that having reached that level it was unlikely we could go higher this week," he added.