The Ibex 35 rises 0.2% at midday and consolidates 10,300 points with Grifols in the lead (19%)

MADRID, 8 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Ibex 35 registered an increase of 0.2% at midday this Friday, reaching 10,340.2 points, in a day marked by the publication of Grifols' audited accounts, which at this time translated into a rebound of 19% after the falls of the last week, and due to the takeover bid for Talgo that the Hungarian group Magyar Vagon has formalized.

The Spanish selective has started the session on the rise and was heading towards 10,400 points, although at midday the increases moderated to 0.2%, thus consolidating the level of 10,300 points at which it closed yesterday, unprecedented highs since February of 2018.

Grifols has published its consolidated annual accounts for the year 2023, including the statement of non-financial information, with an "unqualified" opinion from its auditor KPMG, as reported by the company to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

For its part, the Hungarian group Ganz-Mavag (Magyar Vagon) officially presented this Thursday - at the close of the market - before the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) a public offer for the acquisition of shares (OPA) to acquire 100% of Talgo for 619 million euros.

The buyer highlighted in its statement that the offered price, of 5 euros per share, represents a premium of 14.4% with respect to the current price of the company's shares, 27.7% compared to the situation prior to when it transferred its interest in November and 41.4% compared to the average of the previous six months.

The Government, for its part, assured that it will be "vigilant" about this takeover bid in order to guarantee the future stability of Talgo. Executive sources expressed to Europa Press this first reaction to the formalization of the offer, thus lowering the tone expressed privately last Wednesday by the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, who assured that the Government will do "everything possible" to stop this operation.

Under the macroeconomic umbrella, this Friday it was published that the gross domestic product (GDP) of the eurozone finally avoided entering into a technical recession - which implies two consecutive quarters of decline in activity - after in the fourth quarter of 2023 the economy stagnated, after the contraction of 0.1% in the previous three months, as confirmed this Friday by Eurostat.

The community body has revised the growth of the eurozone and the EU downwards by one tenth in 2023 as a whole, to 0.4%.

It has also been known that the industrial production (Industrial Production Index or IPI) of Germany registered last January an increase in real terms (adjusted for prices) of 1% compared to the previous month, when it had fallen by 2%, which which represents the first rebound since last April, according to provisional data from the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis).

Likewise, in the German country it has been announced that production prices (the producer price index or IPP) have moderated the fall to 4.4% in January in an interannual rate, while in a monthly rate they have risen by 0 .2%, one tenth more than expected.

On the Spanish side, the General Industrial Production Index (IPI) has returned to positive rates in January, rising 3.6% compared to the same month in 2023, a rate that exceeds that of the previous month by 8.5 points and its highest year-on-year increase in the last ten months, as reported by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

In the afternoon, the February employment report in the United States will be released, one of the key references of the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) when guiding its monetary policy.

Given this situation, in the middle section of the negotiation, the biggest increases within the Ibex 35 were recorded by Grifols (19% on the day, although this year it continues to decline by 45%), Bankinter (2.77%), Aena (1.57%), Banco Sabadell (1.5%), BBVA (1.48%) and Caixabank (1.32%, while the 'red lanterns' were Acciona Energía (-2.86%), Solaria (-2.32%), Acciona (-2.18%), Naturgy (-1.53%) and Inditex (-1.4%).

The main European stock markets showed different directions at midday: Milan added 0.13% and Paris 0.23%, while Frankfurt fell 0.05% and London 0.36%.

At the same time, the price of a barrel of Brent quality oil, a reference for the Old Continent, fell by 0.42%, to 82.6 dollars, while that of Texas stood at 78.5 dollars. 0.53% less.

In the foreign exchange market, the price of the euro against the dollar fell 0.1%, to 1.0937 'greenbacks', while in the debt market the interest required on the 10-year Spanish bond stood at 3.08% after subtracting almost four basis points, with the risk premium (the differential with the German bond) at 82 points.