The Ibex moderates the advances at midday to 0.45% and moves away from 10,200 while waiting for the ECB

MADRID, 22 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Ibex 35 moderated the advances of the opening - when it went for 10,200 points - to 0.45% at midday, until it stood at 10,155.7 points, with Repsol as the protagonist by scoring 4.5% after presenting results in a day full of macroeconomic and business references, such as the publication of the minutes of the last meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB).

The Spanish selective has started the session digesting the minutes of the last meeting of the Federal Reserve (Fed) of the United States, known yesterday with the market already closed, and from which it is extracted that the members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC ) were cautious about the risk that the disinflation process would stagnate if interest rates were lowered prematurely, which would be a greater risk than keeping them unchanged.

This morning it was learned that the rate of deterioration in the activity of the private sector in the eurozone has slowed in February to its lowest level in the last eight months as a consequence of the recovery observed in the services sector, according to the advance of the index Purchasing Managers' Composite (PMI) for the Eurozone of S

Specifically, in the month of February, the eurozone composite PMI stood at 48.9 points, compared to 47.9 in January, still signaling a contraction in business activity, but at the slowest pace in eight months; In the case of the services sector, the PMI for February stood at 50 points, a reading equivalent to stagnation, compared to the fall in January, with 48.4 points, thus marking its highest level in seven months, while the Manufacturing PMI has worsened again, with a data of 46.1 points, compared to 46.6 last month.

This afternoon, with the opening on Wall Street, the macroeconomic references of the PMI of the United States in February will be known.

In the Spanish business field, Telefónica has reported before the opening of the Madrid selective to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) that it recorded accounting losses of 892 million euros in 2023, after the provision of Telefónica's restructuring plan Spain and the deterioration of goodwill in its United Kingdom subsidiary.

Repsol, for its part, obtained a net result of 3,168 million euros in 2023, which represents a drop of 25.5% compared to the 4,251 million euros earned in the previous year, reported the company, which launches this Thursday also a new strategic plan for the period 2024-2027.

In addition, Iberdrola obtained a net profit of 4,803 million euros in 2023, which represents an increase of 10.7% compared to the previous year and thus shattering its record profits of 4,339 million euros from a year ago.

Thus, in the middle section of this Thursday's trading, the biggest increase within the Ibex 35 was recorded by Repsol (4.5%), followed by Telefónica (2.63%), Banco Sabadell (2.5%) and Grifols (2.4%), while on the decline side Enagás (-1.56%), Ibedrola (-0.96%) and Naturgy (-0.43%) stood out.

The main European stock markets were decisively opting for increases at midday: London added 0.17%; Paris 0.8%; Milan 1.15% and Frankfurt 1.3%.

At the same time, the price of a barrel of Brent quality oil, a reference for the Old Continent, rose by 0.23%, to 83.22 euros, while that of Texas stood at 78.1 euros, a 0.26% more.

In the foreign exchange market, the price of the euro appreciated 0.27% against the dollar, to 1.0848 'greenbacks', while in the debt market the interest required on the ten-year Spanish bond fell slightly up to 3.346%, with the risk premium (the differential with the German bond) at 90.6 points.