The Ibex strives to overcome the barrier of 8,000 points, a wall that in recent sessions has become insurmountable. If this feat seems complicated, it goes without saying to recover the 15,945 points that it touched on November 8, 2007, its historical maximum. Overcoming the financial and debt crisis in the euro zone and overcoming the pandemic and the paralysis of the economy have not been enough to return to the records of 15 years ago. Does the stock market always rise in the long term? Since then, the Spanish selective has fallen by 50.1%, 8.6% only so far this year, a year in which the tightening of monetary policy and fears of recession are making a dent in the mood of the investors.
The delicate situation that continues to drag the Ibex contrasts with the all-time highs registered at the beginning of 2021 by other European and US indices. In the first half of last year, the German Dax and the Stoxx 600 revalidated their records, a trend that has prevailed on Wall Street since mid-2020. In the last two years, the closest the Ibex has come to returning to records It was in February 2020 when the selective was above 10,000 points. However, the crisis caused by the pandemic took away the hope that the selective would climb to new maximum levels. In fact, the Covid and its consequences brought the Ibex to the brink of 6,000 points on March 16 of that year. On the first day after the declaration of the state of alarm, the Spanish Stock Market suffered a drop of 7.88%.
In 15 years the Spanish economy and the composition of the index have changed substantially. When the Ibex 35 flirted with 16,000 points, Spain grew at a rate of 3.6% year-on-year, compared to 0.2% registered in the third quarter of 2022. The listed companies that made up the index capitalized 651,028 million, some distance from the current 528,000 million.
Likewise, of the 35 securities that made up the index, eight have been excluded from trading (Altadis, Popular, Abertis, Unión Fenosa, BME, Sociedad General de Aguas de Barcelona, Banesto and Iberia) and only 21 continue to form part of the reference index. In exchange, six firms (Merlin Properties, Cellnex, Aena, Acciona Energies, Fluidra and CaixaBank) have made their leap to the Stock Exchange, first in the continuum and later have become part of the selective.
Beyond the IPOs and corporate processes carried out since 2007, over the last 15 years the weight and capitalization of the members of the index have undergone a great transformation. With a weight of 17.99% and a capitalization that exceeded 100,000 million euros, Telefónica held the crown of the most valuable listed company. At that time the shares of the teleco were worth 8.6 euros, a long way from the current 3.57 euros. Telefónica is one of the few Spanish listed companies that has exceeded the barrier of 100,000 million. Today the company is relegated to ninth place with a weighting of less than 5% and a stock market value that is reduced to 20,652 million.
The ranking of the most valuable firm is led by Inditex, with a capitalization of 73,553 million, a figure that is high, but is far from the 100,000 million that it registered for the last time 12 months ago. Despite being the most capitalized firm, its weight in the index is 10.5%, below Santander (10.6% and a capitalization of 44,681 million) and Iberdrola (15.1% and a value of 63,621 million ). Since the beginning of the year, the textile firm maintains a pulse with the company chaired by Ignacio Sánchez Galán to win the position of most valuable company. What it will not achieve is being the one that weighs the most, since it weighs 60% of its shares, because Amancio Ortega and his daughter Marta control more than 66%, while Iberdrola and Santander weigh 100% of their capital.
Cellnex, which went public in 2015, has managed, via revaluations and capital increases, to occupy sixth place (5.22%), ahead of historical figures such as Telefónica (4.91%), Repsol (4.94%) or Railway (4.1%).
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