Slow but staggered. Such have been the movements of the Ibex 35 during this month of July, which has just closed July with a modest rise of 0.51%. This timid increase has been enough for the Spanish stock market reference to settle in a new zone of annual maximums and stay close to 9,700 points, a barrier that has come to exceed intraday levels over the last few days. The psychological level acquires relevance as it is its highest level since February 2020, when the pandemic fiber attacked stock markets around the world.
The selective faces from 9,641 points the eighth month of the year, a period that is traditionally loaded with volatility. “Investors usually rotate portfolios in August,” says Diego Morín, an IG analyst, who anticipates a collection of benefits. If confirmed, it would follow the same trend as last year, when the Ibex closed July at a very similar level, while it fell more than 3.3% in August, marked by a runaway gas price and the warning that the central banks had come a long way in terms of anti-inflation rates.
Twelve months later and a few more hikes along the way, resulting in the fastest monetary tightening in history, one of the main focuses remains on the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB), which, far from over, they raised the benchmark money rate by 25 basis points each last week. With the difference that the first has resumed this path after a stop on the way last June, up to 5.5%, maximum of 22 years, while the second contemplates the possible pause in September after nine consecutive increases, up to 4.25 % , the roadmap of these two organizations have once again conditioned the course of the selective in the final stretch of the month.
These two appointments have taken place in the middle of the publication of business results, giving rise to an explosive cocktail with which he manages to save the month in a positive balance, although he remains as the ‘red lantern’ of the Old Continent. In this, in monthly balance, Paris rebounds 4.25% after the correction of luxury values, Frankfurt rises 1.85 after reaching all-time highs of 16,500 points intraday, London advances 5% and Milan scores a rebound of 2.4%.
The push is led by Indra (+14.1%), which has encouraged investors to buy technology titles after raising its forecasts for this year led by José Vicente de los Mozos as CEO. He is closely followed by Grifols, which also recorded an increase of 13.7% in a few hectic weeks in which it has revealed that it is negotiating the sale of its Chinese subsidiary Shanghai RAAS with China Resources and the advances in the development of various medicines. He completes the Fluidra shortlist (+ 12.8%) in which more than 10% of the ‘rally’ is due to the rise last Friday, when results were presented that beat expectations.
On the contrary, the largest corrective measures are recorded by Acciona and its renewable energy subsidiary, Enagás and Amadeus. The index is also weighed down by Iberdrola and Inditex, their heavyweights that act as a brake and have fallen by 5% and 1.83% in the last four weeks. The socimis, for their part, managed to recover some tone despite the monetary tightening and closed the month positively, insufficient to erase the losses in the annual calculation. In parallel, banking gains momentum and closes positive. Except for CaixaBank, which dropped 3.1%, the rest of the five Ibex banks experienced increases in the last four weeks. The classification of those that rise or fall the most has been distorted by the volatility of this Tuesday, with large fluctuations throughout the day.
