SPAIN'S stock market soared this week by more than ever before in the last 22 years – partly due to hefty investment in companies working on vaccines for Covid-19.
The Bolsa, as the share-price index in Spain is known, rocketed by 13.52%, and the country's top 35 companies in terms of investment capital, the IBEX 35, shot up by 57.7 points to a total of 7,783.7 – taking it back to levels of June when it was thought the pandemic was on the way out.
These figures, and the reportedly imminent arrival of a vaccine, have served to raise hopes that the economic troubles forecast will not come to fruition; after all, macro- and micro-financial hardship at present has been caused by a global health crisis, not by lack of public funds or the crash of high-street banks as was the case just over a decade ago.
The Bolsa's hefty rise reflects that of Wall Street, and comes as a result of a spike in investment in Pfizer and Biontech, two of the companies near the head of the race to get a Covid-19 vaccine on the shelves, and through which Spain has already booked upwards of 10 million initial doses and boosters which are hoped to be administered to high-risk members of the public by December or January.
Although national petroleum company Repsol has dropped by 1.28% - the third-greatest fall in the IBEX 35 and possibly due to a fall in motor fuel sales due to travel restrictions in large parts of the country – and electricity board Iberdrola has contracted by 0.26%, other major corporations 'born in Spain' have reported healthy hikes: Banco Santander's share capital has gone up by 2.93%, BBVA bank by 2.72%, Inditex clothing chain – which includes the most international of Spain's fashion labels, Zara – by 1.06%, and telecommunications giant Telefónica by 0.81%.
And the rise in the Bolsa this week is reported to be the greatest since mid-October 1998.
TWO of Spain's largest high-street banks are reported to be in merger talks, potentially resulting in the joint entity being the second-biggest in the country in terms of share capital.
THE average Spanish resident will spend between €500 and €1,500 on their holidays this year, with three in 10 set to increase their budget from last year and 16% reducing it.
SPAIN'S State post office has launched a new solution for passing travellers who do not want to lug their suitcases around: Lockers for bags are now provided, with prices depending upon weight.
