The Ibex 35 begins 2026 by setting new highs at the limit of 17,500 points. This step puts an end to the sixth consecutive week of increase in the Spanish stock index. On this occasion, the increase is 1.86%.
A lot depends on this profitability. the rebound of 1.07% recorded this Friday. Thanks to him, the Spanish index closed the first session of the year in 17,492.4 points. Never before have I finished a day at such a high level.
The intraday highs stand at whole 17,502.63, which it also touched this Friday.
In turn, The Ibex 35 extended its weekly rising streak to six. This is the best period for the selective since the eight bullish weeks it added between April and June 2025, just after the falls caused by the announcement of customs tariffs in the United States.
The Ibex 35 ends 2025 at 17,308 points, with a profitability of 49.3%, its second best year since the index existed, behind the 1993 rally, when it climbed more than 54%.
This is how the Ibex 35 closes
The selective has slipped among the most bullish stock markets in the world, leaving the major European indices and Wall Street far behind.
The driving force behind the rally was the bank. The Spanish financial sector index more than doubled during the year and, in an Ibex where the sector weighs 40.8%, this acceleration has changed everything.
Santander, BBVA and Unicaja – as well as Indra and Solaria – managed to double their value on the stock market, while CaixaBank, Bankinter and Sabadell were on the verge of achieving this.
At the start of the year, the most optimistic Ibex 35 companies were Grifols (+4.25%), Activate energy (+3.39%) and Repsol (+3.06%).
At the same time, the securities most penalized by investors were Colonial (-2.29%), Merlin Properties (-0.93%) and Phone (-0.66%).
For the week as a whole, the largest increases were recorded by Acerinox (+7.02%), Acciona Energía (5.26%) and Indra (4.46%).
The only declines were those of Mapfre (-0.7%), Aena (-0.63%), Ferrovial (-0.32%) and Puig (-0.13%).
The main European stock exchanges They ended the first session of the year with advances of between 0.2% and 1.1%.
Weekly increases are slightly lower than those of the Ibex 35. The German Dax added 0.63%; the French Cac 40.1%; the British FTSE M100, 0.86%, and the Italian FTSE Mib, 1.63%.
The start of 2026 had a mixed sign on Wall Street. Movements varied from -0.07% to +0.3%. With them, the New York trading room was trying to end a sequence of four consecutive sessions in the red.
With these variations, Wall Street was preparing to close the week in negative territory. The decline in the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite was about 1%.
The start of the year left the PMIs as the essential references of a session which, otherwise, passed on a tone of pure transition.
Eurozone manufacturing PMI fell to 48.8 points in Decemberagainst 49.6 the previous month, which represents its worst figure since March and keeps private activity in contraction territory.
Spain is not spared from the slowdown. The manufacturing PMI index fell from 51.5 points to 49.6, falling below the threshold of 50 which separates expansion and contraction for the first time since April.
This is an uncomfortable signal for the industry, just as the market was starting to price in a more solid improvement in the European cycle.
In this context, analysts did not expect much from the first session of the year. Since Renta 4, they speak openly about a “transition day towards next week”, when activity normalizes after the Christmas holidays and a flood of more important macro references arrives.
Gold recovers
Euro It started the year down 0.22% against the dollar until trading at 1,172 greenbacks. Over the week, it recorded a drop of 0.4%.
The price of Brent oil It lost 0.69% during its third consecutive negative session, to $60.43. This Friday’s decline caused European benchmark crude oil to record a weekly loss of 0.35%.
The daily outage for US West Texas was similar. However, it is up 0.55% this week.
Gold It soared 1.87% this Friday, reaching nearly $4,400. The strong progression did not prevent this week from being a negative week for the precious metal. The drop was 3%, the largest since mid-October.
Bitcoin The year 2026 also started on a positive note. The main global cryptocurrency appreciated by 1.7% and returned to the level of $89,000.
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