The Ibex 35 of the Madrid Stock Exchange was up 0.7% in the mid-session of this Monday and moderated the momentum recorded at the beginning of the day, after having narrowly maintained the psychological threshold of 19,000 points last Friday.
After 12:00 hours, the Spanish selective index was at 19,167.6 points in a festive session in Spain, still conditioned by the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, which keeps the price of crude oil above 105 dollars per barrel.
During the weekend, the Houthi militias of Yemen claimed responsibility for the latest attacks against the airports of Riyadh and Dammam in Saudi Arabia, as well as against facilities of the state oil company Aramco, in response to the "massacres" attributed to the Saudi aviation on Yemeni territory.
In reaction, the coalition forces for Yemen led by Saudi Arabia bombed Houthi rebel targets in the province of Taiz in the southwest of the country on this Monday, where they had made advances in recent days.
"With new attacks over the weekend by the Houthis against Riyadh and Dammam, the reality is that they are exerting pressure on the de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to intensify the war and put the U.S. and the kingdom's new defense partners, Turkey and Pakistan, in a delicate situation," experts from Renta 4 have stated.
In parallel, a large tanker was hit by a projectile while transiting through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian and British sources.
Regarding diplomatic efforts, the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezai, stated this Sunday that the United States has accepted part of the seven demands put forward by Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, although he generally considers that Washington's response has been "inadequate."
"The United States has agreed to some of Iran's seven conditions, but we consider that their response is inadequate," Rezai pointed out in a message published on social media. The Iranian official warned that "Iranian diplomacy has changed and there will be no return to the 'statu quo ante'."
In this scenario, the price of Brent crude oil, a reference in Europe, was rising by 1.05% in the mid-session of the stock markets of the Old Continent, up to 105.74 dollars, while the West Texas Intermediate (WTI), a reference in the United States, was becoming more expensive by nearly 1%, up to 92.76 "greenbacks" per barrel.
On the international front, the foreign ministers of the European Union greenlit a new package of sanctions against Russia this Monday that includes nearly 1,600 people and entities related to the Russian military-industrial complex, in the largest expansion of the sanctions list since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Regarding Spanish business activity, companies have detected in the third quarter of the year a lesser effect of the conflict in Iran on demand, both external and internal, and on their investment plans, as derived from the Bank of Spain's Survey on Business Activity (EBAE).
At the same time, the sustained deterioration of the financing conditions of the French state has raised alarms among large fund managers, who consider the fiscal maneuvering room of the French government to be very limited and warn that the pressure on sovereign debt is beginning to transfer to the country's banking system.
In this context, at 12:00 hours in the Madrid Stock Exchange, the biggest gains within the Ibex 35 were for Cellnex (+2.05%), Indra (+1.97%), Iberdrola (+1.32%), Grifols (+1.32%) and Bankinter (+1.27%). On the downside, the only corrections affected Repsol (-1.69%), Acerinox (-1.28%), Telefónica (-1.08%), ArcelorMittal (-0.91%) and Fluidra (-0.35%).
The main European markets were also trading with gains at mid-session. Milan was appreciating by 0.67%; London, by 0.53%; Frankfurt, by 0.5%; and Paris, by 0.12%.
"European stock markets would open with increases of around +0.4% but with technology stocks weighed down by declines in the sector in Asia," analysts from Banco Sabadell have anticipated.
In the foreign exchange market, the euro was losing ground against the dollar, down to an exchange rate of around 1.1181 "greenbacks." In the fixed income market, the yield on the Spanish ten-year bond relaxed to 4.079%.