The Ibex 35 of the Madrid Stock Exchange began Wednesday’s session with a decline of 0.48%, placing it at 19,068.9 points and allowing it to preserve, at least at the start, the barrier of 19,000 points that it already managed to hold in Tuesday’s session.
However, after the first minutes of trading, the index intensified its losses to 1.2%, thus losing the 19,000-point threshold and falling to 18,934 points.
During the session, investors will remain very attentive to the new batch of corporate earnings and to the decision that the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) makes regarding its next move in monetary policy.
Experts take it for granted that the U.S. central bank will keep interest rates unchanged, after at its last meeting it decided to raise the benchmark rate for the first time in more than three years, although they anticipate another increase before the end of the year.
The market will also closely watch the evolution of the conflict in the Middle East. In this context, the price of a barrel of Brent, the benchmark in Europe, advanced 2.1% at the opening of European markets, to 116.1 dollars, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark in the United States, rose another 2.2%, to 102.1 dollars per barrel.
Corporate results in Spain
In the Spanish market, in the midst of the earnings season, Línea Directa reported, before the opening, a net profit of 80.4 million euros in the first nine months of the year, which represents an increase of 34.8% compared with the same period of the previous year.
Likewise, Mapfre reported a net profit of 924.3 million euros between January and September 2024, 11.5% more than in the same months of the previous year.
Endesa detailed that it obtained a net profit of 1,962 million euros in the first nine months of the year, 14.7% above that recorded a year earlier, and it ratified its forecast to close the fiscal year with ordinary net profit above 2,400 million.
For its part, Redeia indicated that it reached a net profit of 410.3 million euros in the first nine months of the year, which represents an increase of 5.3% compared with the 389.8 million of the same period of the previous fiscal year.
The airport operator Aena indicated that it concluded the first nine months of 2026 with a net profit of 1,796 million euros, 10.8% more than in the same interval of the previous year.
As for Ferrovial, the company explained that it achieved an operating profit of 848 million euros between January and September 2026, 12% lower than the 966 million in the same period of the previous year, due to the higher capital gains obtained last year from the sale of assets.
Banco Santander made public that it obtained a net profit of 11.176 million euros in the first nine months of 2026, which implies an increase of 16.1% compared with the same period of the previous fiscal year.
Técnicas Reunidas reported the awarding of a contract with the African conglomerate Dangote to supply two hydrogen production reformers intended for a new ammonia and urea fertilizer complex in the locality of Gode, in the Somali province of Ethiopia.
Vidrala communicated that it achieved an attributable net profit of 173.4 million euros in the first nine months of the year, 6.4% more than in the same period of 2025.
Lastly, Fluidra indicated that it has amortized more than two million treasury shares, equivalent to 1.1% of its share capital, after completing its share buyback program.
Performance of the Ibex 35 and European stock markets
In the early stages of the session on the Madrid Stock Exchange, the most notable gains within the Ibex 35 corresponded to Arcelormittal (+0.92%), ACS (+0.87%), Ferrovial (+0.72%) and IAG (+0.68%). On the other side, the sharpest falls were those of Acciona (-2.9%), Mapfre (-2.8%) and Acciona Energía (-2.7%).
The main European markets started with a mixed sign. Milan fell 0.1%, while Frankfurt and Paris remained practically flat, and London recorded a decline of 0.2%.
In the foreign exchange market, the euro lost ground against the dollar, trading in the markets at 1.1122 "greenbacks", and in sovereign debt, the yield on the Spanish ten-year bond rose to 4.018%.