Not everything is rallying this year. India is down, which is interesting as it is a perennial favourite with international investors. Mark Tinker, Head of AXA Framlington Equities in Asia, is concerned “notably” concerned about the extent and composition of India’s growth compared to China as well as the fact that since 2013 the Chinese currency has depreciated 8% against the US Dollar while the Rupee has dropped 31%.
Growth in Spain remains strong but the country can withstand some political instability before the results of snap elections that will be held on 28 April. As reported by analysts at Julius Baer, “polls are indicating a hung parliament, but shifts in party policies could enable both a centre-left and a centre-right coalition government to be formed.” The spread difference between Portugal’s and Spain’s 10-year government bonds currently stands at 30 basis points.
Following the reopening of the US Government after its shutdown, the market has been operating without data from both the US Department of Agriculture and speculative positioning data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Next report by Wisdom Tree covers a period of three months about commodity markets.
After three years of negotiations with Cuban authorities, Spanish real estate Urbas has agreed to create a joint venture with CubaGolf, a company that depends on the Cuban Tourism Ministry, to build a tourism and residential complex in the Pasacaballos, to the south of the city of Cienfuegos, with a total investment of around 3.5 billion euros. The company is a classic among the small caps of the Spanish market. Year 2018 was the worst for Urbas since 2008 financial crisis outbreak.
The Spanish constructor has won the tender for a contract the construction of tunnels and bridges on a 15km stretch of the 1-64 highway between Hampton and Norfolk in the state of Virginia. Among other things, ACS will add four additional lanes to the highway through new tunnels. It is the largest infrastructure project Virginia’s history.
Tristan de Bourbon (London) | The uncertainty of the Brexit is prolonged and a solution before day D does not seem possible. The risk is already too intense for many companies, which have begun to accelerate their contingency plans. In November Carolyn Fairbairn, the Director General of the Confederation of British Industry, the main platform of leading managers, warned that companies were stockpiling their products, investing in warehouses, cutting jobs.
Ferrovial, principal private sector Spanish airport management company, intends to participate in the privatisation of the French Aeroports de Paris, which the French government is trying to offer on a 70 year concession. They calculate it will make between 8 and 10 billion euros. Ferrovial recognises that the scale of the operation will require the formation of consortia.
via The Conversation | Recent data of recession in Italy and deceleration in the last quarter in German have sounded the alarm, although France and Spain have slightly increased their growth. It is certain that many risks exist, almost all geopolitical, which, if they came to pass, would have a negative impact on economic activity. And it is also hard to glimpse anything that would allow faster growth.
Repsol has made the largest discovery of gas in Indonesia in the last 18 years and one of the 10 largest in the world in the last 12 months, with a preliminary estimation of at least 2 billion cubic feet of gas in recoverable resources, the equivalent of 2 years of gas consumption in Spain and 20% of Repsol’s natural gas reserves.
The Q418 results have been a negative catalyst for Spanish banks and almost all of them (with the notable exception of BBVA) have seen how the stock market advances accumulated over the course of the year have vanished to the point of returning negative.The recurrent tendencies of incomes have remained moderately positive, as happened in 2018, but, in opinion of Santander Research, net financial margins remain vulnerable.