Spanish Ibex-35 stock index closes after best week of the year

The Spanish Ibex-35 stock exchanged enjoyed a day of slight gains on Friday which enabled it to close after the most positive week's trading of 2016.

Although the values of most of Spain's banks fell slightly after investors looked to cash in on Thursday's impressive gains, following the announcement from the European Central Bank that it would continue net asset purchases until at least December 2017.

The moderate losses in the banking sector were not enough to prevent an overall gain of 0.26 percent as values rose from Thursday's close of 9,145.40 points to 9,169.60 points.

That means the Ibex has enjoyed a weekly gain of 6.5 percent, its best week of trading since October 2015, 14 months ago.

Pharmaceutical company Grifols was the best performer on Friday with a 4.92 percent rise in share values, followed by casings and equipment producer Viscofan (2.71 percent) and energy company Enegas (2.49 percent).

Meanwhile the Spanish Risk Premium climbed by 3.32 percent to 115.2 points, while interest on Spain's ten-year-bond closed the week on 1.51 percent. Endit