The Ibex 35 stabilizes the advances at 0.2% at midday and settles at 10,600 points

MADRID, 18 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

At midday this Monday, the Ibex 35 stabilized the opening gains at 0.2%, reaching 10,620.3 points - the highest of January 2018 -, on a day in which it was confirmed that the CPI of the Eurozone in February moderated two tenths in interannual rate, reaching 2.6%.

Specifically, in the second month of 2024, the inflation figure in the eurozone was due to a year-on-year drop in energy prices of 3.7% from the 6.1% drop in January, while fresh food fell They became more expensive by 2.1%, well below the 6.9% increase in the first month of the year.

In the case of Spain, the harmonized inflation rate stood at 2.9% in February, compared to 3.5% in January, reducing the unfavorable price differential for the country with respect to the eurozone average to three tenths. .

Also in the macroeconomic field, this Monday it was known that the trade balance of the eurozone remained in positive territory in January, although with less vigor than December, while the trade balance of Spain in the same period will also be known.

In the early hours of the morning it was published that China's industrial production data grew by 7% year-on-year in January and February, well above what was expected by the consensus, while retail sales have grown by 5.5% in that temporary period, in line with what the market expected.

After this, the Asian stock markets ended the session with gains, although the 2.67% rise in the Japanese Nikkei was especially notable due to the "solid belief", according to Banca March experts, that tomorrow the Bank of Japan will end its negative rate policy.

In addition, this week will be dominated by the rate decision of the United States Federal Reserve (Fed), in which it is expected to make no changes for the fifth consecutive session, but in which investors will continue to look for clues about the start of the cuts.

Under the business umbrella, the board of directors of Aedas Homes approved this Monday the distribution of a gross dividend of 2.25 euros per share based on the results of its current year, which ends on March 31. In total, the residential developer will allocate 97 million euros to this dividend, which will be paid to shareholders on March 26.

For its part, the media conglomerate MFE-MediaForEurope (MFE) has stressed that it hopes to close the year 2023 with a profit forecast higher than the 217 million euros of the previous year.

Given this situation, in the middle section of the negotiation, the biggest increases within the Ibex 35 were recorded by Solaria (2.8%), Caixabank (1.58%), Unicaja (1.55%) and ArcelorMittal (1. 34%), while the 'red lanterns' were Naturgy (-1.54%) and Acciona Energía (-0.98%).

The main European squares also favored slight advances at midday: Paris added 0.1%; Milan 0.11%; London 0.15% and Frankfurt 0.2%.

At the same time, the price of a barrel of Brent quality oil, a reference for the Old Continent, rose 0.7%, to 85.8 dollars, while that of Texas stood at 81.6 dollars, a 0.7% more.

In the foreign exchange market, the price of the euro against the dollar advanced 0.15%, to 1.0904 'greenbacks', while in the debt market the interest required on the 10-year Spanish bond climbed one point basic up to 3.248%, with the risk premium (the differential with the German bond) at 79.5 points.