Santander president Ana Botín confirmed the bank’s dividend will be increased 5%
The Ibex 35 closed its sixth consecutive week of gains after finishing 0.10% higher on Friday. In the week before Semana Santa the Spanish index rose 0.63%. This record has not been so since October 2013, when the Ibex mounted a streak of seven weeks higher in a row. In Europe, the FTSE 100 was the best performer, while the PSI 20 in Portugal dropped 0.37%.
Gamesa was the best performer after a rise of 3.38%, followed by Media Hotels with a gain of 2.17%, while Mediaset finished 1.16% higher following its raise in recommendation from analysts at JPMorgan.
Repsol was also an impressive riser on Friday with a gain of 1.15%, and was the only one of the five heavyweight stocks to finish on the right side of the board.
The biggest losers on the day were Amadeus, which fell 2.96%, Grifols (-0.94%) and ArcelorMittal (-0.83%). The other blue chips, BBVA, Santander, Iberdrola and Telefonica all fell.
Santander president Ana Botín confirmed that the bank would release a dividend 5% higher, to 22 cents per share. Although it quoted slight losses on Friday, it has risen 16% over the last year, and is one of the drivers of the Ibex’s good performance this year.
Friday also saw the stock market debut of automation giant Gestamp, which fell 4.46% from its IPO value of 5.6 euros to 5.35 euros, making it the biggest faller in the exchange.
Abengoa’s class A stocks rose 21.21% in the general stock exchange to 0.041 euros per share. Sniace (+6.59%) and Amper (+5.78%) also had important gains, while on the losses side Grupo San José fell 5.04% and Biosearch by 3.31%.
In relation to Wall Street, the market registers mixed signals at the halfway point with investors focused on the meeting between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. The increased tension between the US and Russia is also weighing heavily on the minds of investors.
In the futures oil market, it keeps rising in the medium term. West Texas rose 0.58% to $51.99 per barrel, while Brent grew 0.35% to $55.09 per barrel.
José María Rodríguez, Bolsamanía technical analyst, explains that “we keep seeing every time after a correction the market opens its doors to more money. Many of the big stocks continue to be strong: BBVA, Banco Santander, Iberdrola, Repsol, Inditex, ACS. But inside the good performance we have to point out that this week that the surpassing of resistances for Repsol and Inditex.”