The Spanish Blue-Chip IBEX 35 closed 0.46% higher at 8,713.80 on the final trading day of 2021 and up 7.9% in 2021. The market recovered from being down 15.5% in 2020 when it was its worst year since 2010. Spain’s index is well off the multi-year low of 5,815 on March 16th, 2020, as coronavirus fears and lockdown measures hit a crescendo.
Germany, Spain and Italy were among the major European bourses closed for the New Year’s Eve holiday
The IBEX 35 was restrained by the November inflation coming in at a year-on-year increase of 5.5%, the highest rate since October 1992. In March 1992 it was came in at 6.9%. Last year the index was wrecked by the Covid lockdowns more than any of the other major indices in Europe which also hampered recovery as a new variant of the virus exposed Europe in late December.
Like all global stock markets market sentiment turned around from the March 2020 depths with the massive fiscal and monetary policy support by the ECB and globally and more recently roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines and a post-Brexit trade deal.
How European and UK Largest Caps Fared in 2021
How Global Indices fared in 2020
- In the U.S. the S&P 500 and Dow closed at record levels at the year end.
- The tech heavy Nasdaq led the charge in 2020 up 43.64%, the largest gain since 2009
- S&P was up 16.26%. Since 2010 the S&P is up 240%, though 57% of the gain in the S&P was from just three stocks Microsoft, Amazon and Apple
- The Dow is closed up 7.25% after being down most tof the year, the DJIA was down over -36% at the March low
- In Europe the best performer was the German DAX which rose +3.6% for the year.
- Spain’s IBEX 30 was an even worse performer than the FTSE 100 down -15.5%.
- Italy’s MIB fell -5.4%,
- The French CAC 40 fell -7.1%
- The British FTSE 100 dumped. -14.3%
- The Australian ASX 200 Stock Market Closed Down 1.5% in 2020
- Japan’s Nikkei gained 16%,
- China’s Shanghai composite rose ripped 14% during 2020.
The euro however rallied against the US dollar as massive US QE weakened the dollar and relief that the UK-EU free trade deal had been agreed boosted the euro. The stronger euro helped soften losses for overseas investors in the Spanish stock market.
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