Der Ibex-35 erholt sich auf 8.000 bei geringerer Omicron-Angst

Jan 4 (Reuters) – The Ibex-35 on Tuesday chained its third consecutive day in positive and regained the psychological barrier of 8,000 points, as the perception that the omicron variant of coronavirus will be less harmful than feared for the economic recovery prevailed for the moment.

Earlier in the morning, a British minister indicated that in general, people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the UK are showing less severe symptoms, comments later endorsed by the WHO, which highlighted the emergence of new evidence that the omicron variant mainly affects the upper respiratory tract and causes milder symptoms than previous variants.

In this context, the Spanish selective stock market index Ibex-35 closed with a rise of 34.60 points on Tuesday, or 0.39%, to 8,795.80 points, surpassing the 8,000-point barrier it lost on November 25, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks rose by 0.78%.

Stocks in the tourism and travel sector stood out, taking advantage of the reduced concern over the application of new restrictions. Airport manager AENA (MC:AENA) gained 1.58%, Anglo-Spanish airline holding company IAG (MC:ICAG) gained 5.45%, flight booking group Amadeus (MC:AMA) rose 1.34% and hotelier Meliá (MC:MEL) gained 1.28%.

In the banking sector, Santander (MC:SAN) rose 2.78%, BBVA (MC:BBVA) gained 2.53%, Caixabank (MC:CABK) advanced 2.28%, Sabadell (MC:SABE) gained 3.08%, and Bankinter (MC:BKT) rose 2.13%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica (MC:TEF) fell 0.13%, Inditex (MC:ITX) gave up 0.52%, Iberdrola (MC:IBE) dropped 0.57%, Cellnex (MC:CLNX) fell 5.20%, and the oil company Repsol (MC:REP) rose 2.29%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos)