The Ibex 35 rises 1% at midday and flies above 10,600 points thanks to IAG and the bank

MADRID, 15 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

At midday this Friday, the Ibex 35 extended the opening increases to 1.05%, reaching 10,602.5 points - the highest since January 2018 -, driven by the leadership in the rises of the airline group IAG and banking entities on a day marked the first 'quadruple witching hour' of the year, a phenomenon that usually causes high volatility in the markets.

So far this week, the main indicator of the Spanish market has provisionally recorded an accumulated advance of almost 3% - it would be its best weekly evolution figure since November -, while in the year it has reaped a provisional revaluation of 5% .

Options and futures on indices and stocks expire this Friday in both Europe and the United States, in a session in which investors will once again be attentive to the Grifols crisis, which yesterday suffered the rating reductions of the S agencies.

Specifically, the agencies S

For its part, the Dia Group announced on Thursday after the market closed its decision to launch a restructuring process in its subsidiary in Brazil that contemplates as a "more immediate" measure the strategic closure of 343 low-performing stores, 58 % of the total, and three warehouses, as well as the subsequent analysis of different strategic alternatives for the rest of its business in the South American country.

Within the macroeconomic agenda, France this morning revised February inflation upwards by one tenth, to 3%, which is why it moderated by one tenth in the interannual rate, while German inflation for the same period has been confirmed at 2 .5%, so it subtracted four tenths compared to the previous year's figure.

In the afternoon, in the United States, industrial production data for February will be released, as well as the Empire manufacturing index and consumer confidence in March.

In Spain, the National Institute of Statistics (INE) has reported that the average labor cost per worker per month (which includes salaries and social contributions) rose 5% in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. reaching 3,145.99 euros, its highest figure in a fourth quarter since 2000.

Furthermore, the debt of all Spanish public administrations rose by 8,090 million euros in January compared to the previous month (0.5%), reaching 1,582,772 million euros, a new historical maximum, according to data published by the Bank of Spain.

Given this situation, in the middle section of the negotiation, the biggest increases within the Ibex 35 were recorded by IAG (5.33%), BBVA (2.45%), Bankinter (2.35%), Unicaja Banco (2 .3%), Iberdrola (1.71%), Inditex (1.7%) and Caixabank (1.64%), while Solaria (-2.23%) and Meliá Hotels (-1.95%) led to the small group of ten stocks that were trading at losses.

The main European stock markets also opted for increases at midday, although with less impetus than Madrid: London added 0.1%; Frankfurt 0.38%; Paris 0.39% and Milan 0.63%.

At the same time, the price of a barrel of Brent quality oil, a reference for the Old Continent, fell 0.55%, to 84.95 dollars, while that of Texas stood at 80.77 dollars, a 0.6% less.

In the foreign exchange market, the price of the euro against the dollar advanced slightly to 1.0888 'greenbacks', while in the debt market the interest required on the ten-year Spanish bond remained stable at 3.223%, with the risk premium (the differential with the German bond) at 80 points.