Spanish Ibex-35 down 1.49 pct due to fears of trade war

MADRID, March 22 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish Ibex-35 Stock index saw losses of 1.49 percent during trading on Thursday.

The Ibex-35 opened the day on 9,630.90 points and closed the session on 6,487.40 points on a day of nerves due to worries that U.S. President Donald Trump is about to start what many believe will be a damaging trade war with China, a fear shared by markets across Europe.

Thursday's closing figure is the lowest level the Ibex-35 has hit in 13 months and means it has lost 5.54 percent of its value since the start of 2018.

Only a handful of companies saw their share values improve with communications company, Cellnex Telecom shares rising by 1.02 percent, followed by industrial company, Indra (0.53 percent) and Viscofan, which produces products such as cellulose, whose shares increased by 0.46 percent in value.

All of Spain's banks saw important falls in share values, although steel producer Arcelormittal was the biggest 'loser' on the day with share prices dropping by 3.82 percent, after rising by 3.94 percent on Wednesday.

Bankia was the second worst performer of the day with reductions of 3 percent in the price of the bank's shares, while hotel group Melia lost 2.69 percent of its value. Enditem