European stock markets started Tuesday with a rebound after Monday’s positive close, boosted by the acquisition of UBS from Credit Suisse and reassuring messages from the European Central Bank (ECB). The IBEX 35, the Spanish index, posted a 2% rise, surpassing 9,000 points, thanks to the rise of banking stocks, in some cases by as much as 4%. The other European markets also experienced a significant increase at the opening, with Paris registering a rise of 1.08%, Frankfurt of 0.86%, and London of 0.58%. In Switzerland, UBS opened the day up 2.5%, while Credit Suisse, which will be absorbed by the former in the coming months, recorded a slight increase of 0.2%.
In the IBEX 35, banking led the index in the first part of the session, with Banco Sabadell posting the biggest rise of 4.91%, followed by Unicaja with 4.87%, Santander with 4.06%, BBVA with 3.99%, CaixaBank with 3.81%, and Bankinter with 3.80%. However, Meliá Hoteles, Cellnex, Naturgy, and Red Eléctrica recorded the biggest declines.
Investors will closely follow the evolution of the banking sector and the situation surrounding First Republic Bank, whose shares have fallen more than 47% despite the injection of liquidity it has received. The US Federal Reserve (Fed) will hold a two-day meeting at which it could decide on a further 0.25-point interest rate hike.