This Friday began with a modest 0.69% daily rise, lifting the benchmark to 9,105.71 points as investors digested a batch of corporate results. The session followed a Thursday close that slipped 0.36%, yet the Madrid Stock Exchange managed to press higher, nudging the key level of 9,100 points and signaling a renewed willingness among traders to push for gains amid mixed data signals and corporate announcements.
From the opening bells, several stocks stood out with notable early advances. IAG led the way with a 4.29% gain, followed by Solaria up 2.01%, Grifols adding 1.63%, Aena increasing 1.47%, and CaixaBank up 1.42%. Merlin Properties, meanwhile, posted a 2.04% decline, with Logista trading slightly lower by about 0.1%. The morning mood mixed optimism with caution, as traders balanced price action against the backdrop of upcoming data releases and earnings news from major Eurozone players.
CaixaBank confirmed its results for the first quarter of 2023 on Friday, reporting a net attributable profit of 855 million euros, up 21.1% from the same period a year earlier. The release underscored the bank’s ongoing earnings resilience and its ability to translate operating momentum into stronger bottom-line performance, even as market participants weighed the mix of macro signals and sector-specific dynamics.
IAG also disclosed its quarterly accounts to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), showing a pretax and post-exception loss of 87 million euros. This result marked an 88.9% decline compared with the prior-year quarter, highlighting the ongoing challenges in the airline industry amid fluctuating demand and uneven cost pressures, while investors considered the implications for capital allocation and future guidance.
The broader European equity landscape opened higher on the day, with gains across major markets: Milan up 0.76%, Paris 0.67%, London 0.57%, and Frankfurt also advancing by 0.57%. The cross-border sentiment reflected a cautious optimism as participants awaited additional macro data and guidance from corporate earnings across the Continent, aiming to gauge the trajectory of the European cycle and its spillovers into global markets.
Oil prices moved higher as well, with Brent, the European benchmark, trading around $73.44 per barrel, up approximately 1.3% on the session. United States crude (WTI) traded near $69.42, up 1.25%, indicating a tighter supply outlook and steady demand expectations as markets priced in a mix of regional production signals and global demand headwinds that could influence inflation trajectories and central bank policy expectations.
Finally, the euro strengthened modestly against the dollar, trading near 1.1046, as markets digested the latest eurozone and United States data stream. Spain’s 10-year sovereign yield hovered around a level that suggested a moderate risk premium in line with global debt markets, while the benchmark spread for Spanish risk pointed to a measured appetite for sovereign risk. The fixed-income environment remained sensitive to central-bank commentary and shifts in inflation expectations, with bond markets continuing to price in a gradual path toward normalization in monetary policy across major economies, including the Eurozone and North America.