The Ibex 35 was up 0.71% at midday this Friday, reaching 19,799.90 points, on a day when the banking sector led the gains following the European Central Bank's (ECB) decision to raise interest rates by 25 basis points this Thursday.
"Although markets anticipate a greater monetary tightening, the moderation of core inflation should reduce the need for further rate hikes. We continue to expect interest rates to remain unchanged from now on, although there is a risk of a new hike at the December meeting," said Julius Baer's chief economist, David Kohl.
On the geopolitical front, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated on Thursday, regarding his decision to initiate a war against Iran, that "if I had to do it again, I would do exactly the same," even though this could lead to a defeat for the Republican Party in the midterm elections on November 4, a scenario he claims not to trust.
"If I had to do it again, I would do exactly the same," Trump stated after being asked in an interview on the conservative network Fox News if he regretted any decision regarding the war in Iran. "I don't believe in the word 'regret,'" he asserted.
In the macroeconomic sphere, investors are focusing today on the publication of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for August in the United States.
It has also been reported that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the United Kingdom grew by 0.4% in July, one-tenth more than in June and four above the figure from May.
On the corporate front, CaixaBank announced this Friday that it has executed almost 57% in the nineteenth week of the share buyback program launched last May for a total amount of 500 million euros.
For its part, Ferrovial reported that, effective this Friday, it has stopped trading on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, where it moved its headquarters in 2023 to facilitate its IPO in the United States. The company will continue to be traded on the Spanish stock exchanges of Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, and Valencia, as well as on the U.S. Nasdaq.
Within the continuous market, the Asturian engineering company TSK reported a net profit of 44.8 million euros in its first half as a listed company, which represents a 16-fold increase from the 2.8 million recorded in the same period of the previous year.
In turn, Cox Asset Mexico, a subsidiary of Cox Infrastructure Group, successfully completed the placement of a hybrid capital issuance for 800 million dollars, equivalent to about 689 million euros.
Among the most bullish stocks in the index were Banco Sabadell (+1.48%), Mapfre (+1.47%), Unicaja (+1.34%), Banco Santander (+1.33%), CaixaBank (+1.32%) and Bankinter (+1.29%). On the opposite side, the sharpest declines were those of Enagás (-1.03%), followed by Solaria (-0.73%), Redeia (-0.54%), Amadeus (-0.51%) and Puig (-0.46%).
The main European indices were also moving positively at midday: London's FTSE 100 was up 0.42%, Paris's Cac 40 was up 0.49%, Frankfurt's Dax was up 0.52%, Milan's FTSE MIB was up 0.68% and the Euro Stoxx 50 was up 0.58%.
In the commodities market, the Brent barrel, a reference in Europe, fell 3.19% to 104.20 dollars, while the West Texas Intermediate (WTI), a reference in the US, dropped 2.74% to 99.67 dollars.
In fixed income, the yield on the Spanish 10-year bond remained practically stable at 3.962%, compared to 3.963% at Thursday's close, leaving the risk premium over the German bond at 47.09 basis points.
In the foreign exchange market, the euro depreciated 0.13% against the dollar, trading in the markets at 1.1597 'green bills'.