The Ibex-35 fell 0.1% to 8,871 points with the ballast of the banking sector
European stock markets are losing momentum without the Wall Street reference, which was closed Monday for Martin Luther King Day. The Ibex-35 started the session week with a slight drop of 0.10%, but that doesn’t put it far from its goal of regaining 8,900 points.
In addition to Colonial (+2.50%), Rovi (+2.32%), Fluidra (+1.73%) or Cellnex (+1.47%), other major stocks such as IAG (+1.08%) and Endesa (+0.94%) kept the indicator at a distance compared to the red figures of the rest of the European stock markets.
And also compared to the declines registered by the banking sector, with declines of 2% for Unicaja Banco, 1.94% for Bankinter and 1.75% for Banco Sabadell. CaixaBank (-1.53%) and Banco Santander (-1.20%) were also at the bottom of the table.
The experts remind that, after a very positive start to the year for the equity markets, in which many indices have recovered a substantial part of what was relinquished in 2022, the corporate results will mark the evolution of the next sessions, pending the meetings that will be held in February the major central banks of the world.
Last Friday, the major US banks kicked off the new accounting season with an overall drop in profits as a result of higher provisions that hit the entities in the latter part of the year. However, this decline was more limited than consensus expectations, removing some uncertainty for investors. In Spain, Bankinter will be the first entity to report to the market next Thursday.
Analysts at Link Securities recall that the market has been downgrading earnings expectations for months, “which has resulted in the bar being set very low, allowing companies, except in specific cases, to exceed expectations.”
Against this background, they are not ruling out the possibility that the earnings season could be another catalyst for further increases in the future, as long as central banks go along without new investor scares.
Analysts also point to the high level of overbought in major indices and many stocks after the strong gains in the first two weeks of the year. For this reason, they do not rule out profit-taking by the more short-term investors, “who may decide to reduce their exposure slightly while waiting for the central banks”.
Meanwhile, the price of oil in the commodity market is falling, with a barrel of Brent, a reference in Europe, at $84.72, while West Texas in the US is around $79.5.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
