The IBEX 35 is up 1.49% at half-time to 9,195 points. The best performers right now are Melia Hotels and Solaria, which are up more than 3%. In red only Rovi Laboratories, which returned 0.87%.
One of the protagonists of the day is Iberdrola. The company announced yesterday that it had signed a “mega deal” to supply “green” energy (PPA, for its English acronym) to “global distribution giant” Amazon from various wind and solar energy projects in Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific.
Also in the energy sector, the board of Repsol has agreed to submit at the suggestion of the appeals committee its next general meeting, which will be held on 25 on the second call, a new re-election of Antonio Brufau to his position as non-executive chairman of the company and that of CEO Josu Jon Imaz, both for additional four-year terms.
In addition, Repsol proposes a new capital reduction of 10% of its capital and will pay a supplementary dividend of 0.35 euros per share on July 6, in addition to a gross payment of 0.375 euros per share, which will be charged to free reserves in January 2024 .
Another stock to watch closely this Thursday is IAG (Iberia). Along with the financial sector, the airline holding company is one of the worst stocks investors have read in the financial turmoil of the last few weeks. A particular parallel descent that cost a fall of 6.5% as the storm between the banks with first degree volatility and uncertainty monopolized movements in the Spanish stock market. However, analysts still appear bullish on the stock, with a 12-month upside potential of 57%.
Meanwhile, controversy rages over Ferrovial’s decision to leave Spain to move to the Netherlands as a step ahead of its intention to go public in the US. Yesterday, in a speech in Congress, the President of the National Stock Exchange Commission (CNMV), Rodrigo Buenaventura, indicated that the analysis carried out together with Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME) concluded that for a listed company there was no obstacle to the spanish language states claim your listing in usa.
In the Continuous Market, investors should pay attention to the Applus+ price. The company informed the CNMV earlier today that it has signed an agreement to sell 100% of its US non-destructive testing and inspection business, which primarily serves the oil and gas industry. The sale is to a financial investor, is subject to certain regulatory approvals and is expected to be completed in the coming months.
The company generated sales of around EUR 100 million in 2022 with operating losses in challenging competitive conditions in the local market in recent years.
Volatility, as measured by the VIX index, returned below 20 points, its long-term average, yesterday, indicating markets are calming down. and that barring fresh news of a troubled bank, investors appear to be putting the sector’s crisis behind them.
Today, however, it will be the macro economy that will draw investors’ attention, particularly inflation, as the March CPI readings are due out this morning in Spain and Germany. Investors had breakfast with the data from the Spain’s CPI, which slipped more than 2.5 points to 3.3% in March, while underlying inflation fell a tenth to 7.5%.
Waiting for the data from Germany, Link Gestión’s Juan J. Fernández-Figares warns that in this scenario, “core inflation plays a more relevant role, as it excludes from its calculation the prices of products and services, which rose the most as a result of the war in March 2022: Energy and unprocessed foods”.
“It will therefore be the behavior of the underlying CPI in the month that needs to be set, as will the members of the Governing Council. It should be borne in mind that core inflation has risen steadily in recent months and has reached all-time highs in the eurozone as a whole. Should this variable show signs of starting to weaken in March, this would go down very well with investors,” adds the expert.
Right now in European equity markets the DAX is up 1% to 15,483.45 points, the CAC 40 is up 1.08% to 7,264.79 and the FTSE MIB is also up 0.99% and the FTSE 100 is up 0.67% . For its part, the EURO STOXX 50 was up 1.08% at 4,277.05 units.
Yesterday, Wall Street closed with strong gains, with the DOW JONES surging more than 300 points, although the biggest gains came for the tech Nasdaq, up 1.8%. Futures are also pointing to a slightly higher open on Thursday.
Japanese stock markets fell during the European dawn, at a time when many stocks are paying dividends and losses in shipping companies are offsetting gains in tech stocks. The Nikkei 225 index in Tokyo closed down 0.36% to 27,782 points.
In commodity markets, oil prices are falling early in the morning as the dollar strengthens and investors are watching developments related to reduced oil exports from Iraqi Kurdistan. Benchmark Brent crude in Europe is priced at $77.64 a barrel, while US West Texas is being paid at $73.09 a barrel.
In the fixed-income area, the yield on Spanish bonds with a ten-year term falls to 3.295%, the risk premium compared to Germany is 102.15 points. On the other side of the Atlantic, the US benchmark 10-year bond offers a yield of 3.568% in the secondary market. Euro remains stable at $1,084.