Spanish stock exchange slightly up on Friday

The Spanish stock exchange Ibex-35 ended the last trading day of 2016 with slight gains, which failed to make up for the annual loss of 2.01 percent.

Another quiet day of trading in Madrid saw the Ibex briefly dip below the 9,300-point mark, after starting the day at 9,327.10 points, before rallying to close the session at 9,352.10 points, an increase of 0.27 percent on Friday's opening.

One of the main reasons for the increase was that the banks, which had all seen their share prices suffer minor losses on Thursday, saw those losses recovered on Friday. Meanwhile, good news of record tourist numbers and the rate of inflation also helped buoy share prices.

Friday's performance was not enough to see the Ibex-35 end the year with an overall gain. 2016 is a turbulent year in which Spain did not have an effective government for 10 months after the election on Dec.20, 2015.

The political instability, which led to a second election on June 26, led to uncertainty in the market until late in the year when it became increasingly apparent that Mariano Rajoy's People's Party would return to power, when the Ibex-35 saw its value back to the 9,000-point mark.

The year of 2016 has also seen unemployment fall in Spain, although many of the jobs created are both temporary and low-paid ones and wages continue to fall. As the new year arrives, there is still uncertainty over whether or not Rajoy will be able to pass the budget for the new year.

Only Gamesa and Banco Santander saw share values rise by over 1 percent on Friday and no company saw losses of 1 percent or more. Meanwhile, the risk premium closed the year at 118.9 points, and the interest on the 10-year-bond closed at 1.39 percent. Endit