The Ibex 35 has ended the month of October with an accumulated drop of 3.90%, to 18,652.90 points, which means its worst monthly close since March. The performance of the benchmark has been conditioned by the sharp corrections in tech stocks, the rise in sovereign debt yields, and the latest monetary policy decisions of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the US Federal Reserve.
The benchmark index of the Spanish Stock Exchange, which now adds two consecutive months in negative territory, has ended the week with a decline of 1.77%, after losing 1.09% in Friday’s session.
The correction of the Ibex 35 is understood by the weight that banking has in the index, since investors have especially punished financial institutions while rotating their portfolios toward utilities, gas companies, and companies in the health sector throughout October.
"High rates are not an unlimited advantage for banking either. They make it possible to charge more for loans, but they can also make financing more expensive, weaken credit demand and increase defaults. The question is how much of the revenue growth ends up becoming sustainable profit," say XTB analysts.
In addition, the XTB analysis team foresees a "difficult end of the year for everyone" in the main Spanish stock index: "The market has rewarded years of prosperity for banks and now has become more demanding. Political problems, bond yields and the increases by the European Central Bank also do not help find a catalyst that helps us reflect greater optimism in the rest of 2026," it points out.
On Friday, investors continued reacting to corporate earnings as quarterly results became known. The banking sector has ended its turn with the presentation of CaixaBank and Unicaja.
CaixaBank has indicated that it closed the first nine months of the year with a profit of 4.962 billion euros, 12.9% more than in the same period of the previous year, while Unicaja closed the first nine months with attributable net profit of 543 million, which represents an increase of 8.1% compared with the same period of the previous year.
For its part, Acerinox has announced that it obtained a net profit of 162 million euros in the first nine months of 2026, multiplying by 23 the profits of seven million recorded in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
Tubacex has closed the first three quarters of the year with sales of 475.6 million euros, 9.6% less than in the same period of 2025, and losses of 5.5 million in its attributable net profit, compared to the 16.7 million profit of last year.
Likewise, Neinor Homes has reported that it has agreed, through its wholly owned subsidiary Neinor DMP BidCo, to launch a public takeover bid (OPA) on Aedas Homes at a price of 24 euros in cash per share, with the aim of delisting the real estate developer from trading on the Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and Valencia stock exchanges.
Macroeconomic data and international context
On the macroeconomic front, the National Statistics Institute (INE) has indicated that the Spanish economy advanced 0.6% in the third quarter of the year, one tenth less than in the previous quarter. Growth was mainly supported by domestic demand, which contributed five tenths, versus the contribution of one tenth from the external sector.
The agency has also reported that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) maintained its year-on-year rate in October at 4.9%, at levels from February 2023, thus stringing together three consecutive months with increases above 4%.
In the international arena, the Monetary Policy Council of the Bank of Japan has decided this Friday to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.25%, after assessing that underlying inflation is in line with its 2% stability target.
Behavior of the Spanish Stock Exchange and other markets
Back on the domestic trading floor, the most notable gains in the session have been Repsol (+4.49%), Grifols (+2.81%), Puig (+1.90%), Rovi (+1.62%) and Telefónica (+1.44%). On the other hand, Acerinox led the declines (-5.47%), ahead of Solaria (-5.10%), Banco Santander (-3.75%), BBVA (-3.70%) and Indra (-2.32%).
The main European stock exchanges also ended the week in negative territory: the French Cac 40 gave up 0.01%, the German Dax 0.85%, the Italian FTSE MIB 1% and the Euro Stoxx 50 1.22%. Only the British FTSE 100 closed in positive territory, with a slight advance of 0.07%.
In the United States, Wall Street was moving lower, weighed down by technology stocks: the Dow Jones fell 0.72% at the close of European markets, the S&P 500 1.61% and the Nasdaq, the benchmark index for the technology sector, lost 2.66% dragged down by Intel, which was plunging 30%.
In the commodities market, the Brent barrel, a benchmark in Europe, stood at 117.60 dollars, 2.37% higher, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark in the United States, reached 104.32 dollars, with a rise of 2.27%.
In fixed income, the yield on the Spanish 10-year bond fell to 3.936%, from the previous 3.972%, placing the risk premium at 62.97 basis points.
In the foreign exchange market, the euro was depreciating by 0.15% against the dollar, so the exchange rate stood at 1.1163 dollars per euro.
As for the assets considered "safe havens" in periods of strong volatility, the price of the ounce of gold fell 3.10%, to 3,906 dollars, while the main cryptocurrency, bitcoin, fell 4.68% to 77,446 dollars, as a result of the "cyberheist" suffered by Binance, with a total estimated impact of 6.300 billion dollars (5.650 billion euros).