- The markets celebrated the words of Mario Draghi from the ECB
- Draghi said urgent actions were not necessary as the situation has improved
- Banking sector show impressive performance on Thursday
The Ibex 35 closed at highs for the last 15 months on Thursday. The index rose 1.5% and is now sitting at 9,998.4 points. The big talking point of the day was the breach of 10,000 points for the first time since December 2015, reaching 10,014 points before cooling off slightly to finish slightly under. the banking sector cheered on the words of ECB president Mario Draghi.
- 11.154,600
- 1,56%
Thursday's session saw Draghi as the main protagonist. The ECB left its monetary policy unchanged as Draghi said that he did not anticipate a major difficulty, but added that it's not necessary to remain on alert and think about further reducing interest rates.
The financial sector was in fine form after the ECB meeting, despite the fact IAG led the advances at the end of the day with a rise of 3.92%. Caixabank was the second best performer with a rise of 3.87% to 3.62 euros. UBS raised its recommendation for the bank to Buy from Neutral and increased its target price to 3.95 euros. Goldman Sachs also reiterated its advice to Buy.
BBVA also rose almost 4% to 6.8 euros. Banco Santander gained 2.45% to 5.4 euros. In fact, the five heavyweight stocks of the Ibex all registered gains with the exception of Repsol, which dropped 1.16% due to falling oil prices.
However, Inditex registered 2,1% higher at 31.5 euros, after reporting results one week ago. Telefonica also performed well with a 1.13% gain and is comfortably above 10 euros. Deutsche Bank raised its recommendation to Buy.
Ferrovial also performed well on Thursday in the Deutsche Bank report, with the German bank raising potential by 11% to 20 euros per share.
On the losses side, steel stocks suffered on Thursday. Acerinox dropped 1.53% to 13.1 euros and picked up the wooden spoon for the session, followed by ArcelorMittal on 1.39%.
OTHER MARKETS
In Euro markets, the Ibex 35 was the best performing index and now sees rises of 6.91% for the year. The Cac 40 in France rose 0.42%. The Dax 30 gained 0.09%. BMW held back the German market after losing 2.56% following reporting the loss of 8% of its profits for 2016. The Ftse 100 fell 0.27%.
Wall Street registered slight gains after three consecutive days in the red. Investors await the meeting of the Federal Reserve qwhich will take place next week.
Oil prices fell 2% with Brent crude dropping to $52 per barrel, but West Texas, the US benchmark, is now below $50 after a 2.25%.
The euro celebrated the words of Draghi also, and was up 0.42% against the dollar. The comon currency is now at $1.0586.
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
Bolsamanía technical analyst José María Rodríguez said that recent sessions pointed towards the breaching of 10,000 points. "The most important thing ahead of tomorrow's close is the ability to remain head and shoulders above the resistance level," he said.
