Ibex closes flat after being held back by BBVA and Santander
Big European banks were the main hindrance for equity markets
- Spanish index had a low point of 9,236 on Wednesday
- It closed at 9,329.70 after recovering its position
The Ibex 35, after being situated in positive during the day, closed flat at 9,329.70 points. The two biggest banks, Santander and BBVA, had disappointing days with falls of 3%, although they finished 1.39% and 1.24% lower respectively.
IBEX 35
11.435,700
-
-0,28%-31,60
- Max: 11.474,90
- Min: 11.399,10
- Volume: -
- MM 200 : 11.289,95
The poor performances of Santander and BBVA, which fell below 5 and 6 euros per share respectively, were representative of other major European banks. In France Société Générale, BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole fell the most in the Cac 40. The same happened with Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank in Germany, as it did with Banca Mediolanum, Ubi Banca and Intesa Sanpaolo in Italy.
Técnicas Reunidas (-1.69%) was the biggest faller in a day when Maersk Moller, transport specialist fell 5% after losing $2.7bn in 2016.
On the other side of the table, ACS rose 2.8% and was the best performing stock on the day after signing a contract in New York to the value of 1.4 million euros. IAG (1.99%) was the second best performer, pushed on by high traffic in January. Gamesa rose 1.98% and Iberdrola by 1.88%, followed by Cellnex (+1.85%), Red Eléctrica (+1.84%) and Endesa (+1.8%).
Financial results keep coming also. Mapfre and Gas Natural had their turn on Wednesday, and neither were particularly convincing. The insurance company fell 1.66% and the energy company 1.39%.
Spanish banks finished reporting their results last week, and the brokers are beginning to react. Goldman Sachs said on Tuesday that Caixabank was its pick to perform the best in the sector in Spain, whilst it advised selling Bankinter, as from its point of view there has been little to suggest otherwise.
Oil prices are still in focus. It is spinning around once again and rises slightly (Brent $55.36, West Texas $52.33) following the weekly inventory of crude in the US. The crude prices have dropped 3% on average on the worries of high levels of production. With regard to other figures this week, Spain's industrial production figures were released, and showed a rise of 1.6% in 2016.
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
"Wednesday's session was very interesting in the index, as it took the shape of a "hammer"at the support. The low of the session was 9,236 points, breaking the lower mark," pointed out José María Rodríguez, technical expert at Bolsamania.
He added that "normally these type of movements have higher implications for the price, at least in the short term. We are going to focus on the 9,504 level as a resistance objective."
