The Ibex 35 advances 0.65% at midday with almost all values ​​in 'green' and waiting for the ECB

MADRID, 7 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Ibex 35 extended the opening increases at midday this Thursday and recorded an advance of 0.65%, reaching 10,263.9 points, with almost all its values ​​on the profit side and awaiting the interest rate decision of the European Central Bank (ECB).

Specifically, the Governing Council of the ECB will keep interest rates stable at its meeting this Thursday, where the most notable thing will be knowing the entity's new macroeconomic projections while awaiting more clues about when rate cuts could begin in the eurozone, after the different positions expressed by several advisors of the institution.

"We do not expect changes in monetary policy, but we do expect the first signs of moderation in the discourse, channeled through the update of the growth and inflation forecasts for 2024, although they do not incorporate the latest inflation data for February at the close of the year. deadline one day before its publication," Banca March experts have pointed out in a report.

In that sense, Banca March thinks that "the ECB will wait until June to start a serious debate on rate cuts, thus having a good sample of data from the first part of the year."

In addition, the president of the Federal Reserve (Fed), Jerome Powell, will appear again after this Wednesday's speech, when he stated that progress to return inflation to the 2% objective is not "insured", which is why he championed the need to have more data that confirms the convergence of prices with said 2% before undertaking cuts in interest rates.

Also in the United States, the new requests for unemployment benefits and the trade balance for January will be revealed, while in Europe it was known this morning that factory orders from Germany in January have fallen in monthly rate almost double what was expected by the market -they have fallen 11.3%-.

In the business field, Rovi has informed the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) before the opening of the stock market that it has hired the services of Lazard Asesores Financieros to explore the possible sale of its manufacturing business to third parties.

The pharmaceutical company has thus confirmed information published today in the newspaper 'Expansión' in which it is stated that the company has hired Lazard to study a possible operation in its third-party manufacturing business.

Regarding Grifols, the CNMV has specified that the legal period for listed companies to present their accounts is four months from their closing, that is, with regular closing, Grifols would have until the end of April to submit its financial results. 2023, as sources from the supervisor have indicated to Europa Press.

For its part, Telefónica's delegated committee has agreed to present a public exclusion offer with the aim of acquiring what remains of its German subsidiary, 5.65% of the capital, for a maximum amount of 395 million euros.

Likewise, the airport manager Aena estimates that its consolidated gross operating result (Ebitda), excluding impairments, will grow by more than 20% until 2026 compared to 2023, as reported by the company, which presents this Thursday the update of its plan. strategic.

For its part, Iberdrola has launched an offer to acquire 18.4% of Avangrid, of which it already controls approximately 81.6% of its capital, which would take full control of its US subsidiary through an operation that reaches the 2,280 million euros.

Given this situation, in the middle section of the negotiation the biggest increases within the Ibex 35 were recorded by Rovi (4.1%), Solaria (3.9%), Banco Sabadell (2.34%) and Grifols (2. 26%), while only Inditex (-1.1%), Repsol (-0.9%), Amadeus (-0.55%), Fluidra (-0.45%) and Aena (-0.17%).

The main European stock markets showed different trends at midday: London was down 0.23% and Frankfurt was trading flat, while Milan added a slight 0.05% and Paris 0.1%.

At the same time, the price of a barrel of Brent quality oil, a reference for the Old Continent, fell 0.95%, to 82.17 dollars, while that of Texas stood at 78.4 dollars, a 0.94% less.

While waiting for the ECB, in the foreign exchange market, the price of the euro against the dollar remained unchanged compared to yesterday's close, at 1.09 'greenbacks', while in the debt market the interest required 10-year Spanish bond fell slightly to 3.126%, with the risk premium (the differential with the German bond) at 82 points.