Invertia The Ibex deflates its rebound to settle for 1.7% at 8,600 points

The European stock markets returned to bet on the rebound without taking their eyes off the big event of the session: the Fed meeting. The indices took a run, but deflated as the hour of the US central bank approached. The Ibex 35 rose 1.66% to settle for 8,620.2 points despite having even exceeded 8,700 integers at the halfway point of the day.

Investors waited more nervously for US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's remarks than for the monetary policy statement itself. In this sense, no major changes were expected with respect to what was reported in December, but the key was whether the institution was beginning to opt for a first interest rate hike for March.

With this climate, and without losing sight of the situation between Ukraine and Russia, the stocks most affected in previous sessions were at the head of the rally. IAG posted increases of 7.9%, while Siemens Gamesa added 4.8%, Merlin Properties completed the bullish podium with increases of 3.8%.

However, more contributing to the gains was the rebound recorded by several heavyweights in the stock basket of the Spanish index. Such was the case of Banco Santander (+3.7%) and Repsol, which posted an advance of 3% on the same day that Brent oil touched 90 dollars per barrel, at a maximum since 2014.

Very few values, just five, missed the comeback. At the bottom of the table, Naturgy fell 0.6%, while Cellnex (-0.4%), Fluidra (-0.2%) and Enagás (-0.2%) suffered more moderate falls.

Aena also ended up joining this small group. The manager of Spanish airports fell 0.6% when digesting a cut in investment advice from Berenberg analysts. From the signing, they lowered their recommendation from buy to hold and their target price to 145 euros per share, slightly below their closing price on Tuesday.

With regard to the secondary fixed income market, the return on the ten-year Spanish bond fell slightly to around 0.66% despite the expected tension from the US central bank. The risk premium against a German 'bund' at -0.07% increased to 74 basis points.