The Ibex 35 of the Madrid Stock Exchange began trading this Friday with a decline of 1.18%, placing the benchmark at 19,256.40 points at an opening conditioned by the sharp corrections recorded yesterday on Wall Street after the collapse of the big tech companies, which likewise dragged down Asian markets.
At the start of trading, all of the Ibex 35 stocks were in negative territory. Among the most heavily hit was the airline IAG, after posting after-tax profit of 2,264 million euros between January and September, 16.2% less than in the same period of the previous year. Also notable were the declines of ArcelorMittal, which fell 2.89%, while Fluidra lost 2.38% and Acerinox gave up 2.32%.
On the less negative side of the benchmark were ACS, with a slight trimming of 0.12%; Naturgy, which fell 0.27%; Enagas, with a drop of 0.39%; and Iberdrola, which depreciated 0.44% in the first stages of the session.
Thus, the Ibex 35’s poor initial tone reflected the severe declines with which this Thursday’s session on the New York Stock Exchange closed, where the Dow Jones ended the day with a plunge of 3.44%, while the Nasdaq lost 5.52% at the close.
Meanwhile, the main European bourses also opened with heavy selling. Paris’s Cac40 cut 1.25% and London’s Ftse100 1.4%, while Milan’s FtseMib fell 1.51% in the first minutes of trading.
The same bearish momentum coming from the United States was felt in Asian stock markets, which registered sharp declines this Friday. Tokyo’s Nikkei index fell 5.96% and South Korea’s Kospi retreated 6.02%.
In the commodities market, the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil remained below the 100-dollar threshold, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading above 90 dollars.