The main Spanish stock index opened on Monday without a clear trend, in a day marked by the start of the cap of 60 dollars per barrel that the G7 has applied to Russian oil and by measures that point to a de-escalation of the COVID-19 restrictions in China.
The consequences of the G7 cap on Russian crude, which comes on top of the EU ban on the import of Russian crude, are hard to foresee, as Russia has declared it will not abide by the measure even if it means cutting output.
At the start of the session on Monday, oil prices were up as much as 2% after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, including Russia, jointly called OPEC+, agreed on Sunday to stick with their October plan. cut production by 2 million barrels per day (bpd) from November to 2023.
The precarious situation in the geopolitical field – while the war between Russia and Ukraine continues – and energy aggravated on Monday the fears about the economy that prevail in global markets, which are still pending from central banks and the battle against inflation.
“In the current context, our market vision continues to be prudent in a scenario of high uncertainty and an increasingly weak macroeconomic environment,” the analysts of the Renta 4 brokerage house said in their daily analysis note.
“We believe that inflation will remain at high levels and rates will continue to rise, not seeing reductions in them in 2023, to which is added the materialization of the expected deterioration of the economic cycle,” they added.
Still, more market-welcomed COVID-19 news was coming from China, after numerous regional authorities announced some relaxation of lockdowns, quarantine rules and testing requirements.
At 08:35 GMT on Monday, the Spanish Ibex-35 stock index rose 3.50 points, or 0.04%, to 8,386.20 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks fell 0.17 %.
The blood products manufacturer Grifols and the airport operator Aena stood out positively, rising 5.6% and 3.9% respectively after Morgan Stanley raised the recommendation for the two values to “overweight”.
In the banking sector, Santander lost 0.32%, BBVA fell 0.68%, Caixabank lost 0.41%, Sabadell fell 0.19%, and Bankinter dropped 0.03%.
Among the large non-financial values, Telefónica fell 0.47%, Inditex lost 0.43%, Iberdrola fell 0.14%, Cellnex gained 1.15% and the oil company Repsol lost 0.03%.