Visitors watch IBEX stock information displays at the Madrid Stock Exchange (file). The index rose by 0.5% yesterday.

AFP
London

Spain’s main stock market rebounded yesterday, recovering some of the ground lost the previous day on the political impasse in the eurozone’s fourth biggest economy following an inconclusive election.
London, whose commodities-heavy index was boosted by more stable prices for oil and metals, led other European markets higher with a gain of 0.8%.
Paris ended with a small gain and Frankfurt a small loss. London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.8% at 6,083.10 points; Frankfurt’s DAX 30 was down 0.09% at 10,488.75 and Paris’ CAC 40 was up 0.05% at 4,567.60.
“With little else in the way of stimulus, European shares tracked the price of oil, giving up early gains then regaining them as the price of Brent crude moved in and out of negative territory,” said market analyst Jasper Lawler at CMC Markets UK.
Oil prices rose slightly yesterday, with the global Brent benchmark bouncing back from 11-year low of $36.04 it hit the previous day.
In Madrid, the IBEX 35 index rose by 0.5%.
The Spanish market had slumped by 3.6% on Monday following an election that has left the country in political limbo with the ruling party losing its majority in parliament.
“In an about-turn from market action yesterday, Spain’s IBEX was the best performer amongst continental European equity indices,” said Lawler, as investors were reassured by conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy reaching out to rivals to try to form a government.
Meanwhile the euro continued to climb against the dollar, which also tends to dampen eurozone share prices as companies lose their export advantage.
The euro advanced to $1.0967 in late European trading.
Wall Street pushed higher after US data showed third-quarter US economic growth in line with expectations, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.5% in midday trading.
In Asia, hopes that China will implement fresh economic reforms lifted emerging-market currencies and oil and metals prices saw a rare uptick, while most Asian stock markets extended the previous day’s gains.
After a secretive policy meeting that ended Monday, China’s economic planners said they would combat local government debt and push on with changes in the housing sector to try to shore up growth.
They also said they would “strengthen structural reforms” and called for more flexibility in monetary policy, state news agency Xinhua reported.
The announcement is the latest from Beijing after it promised last year to let the market play a bigger role in the world’s No 2 economy and implement reforms of bloated state-owned enterprises.
It also follows other moves to kickstart slowing growth, including six interest rate cuts since November last year.
“Somewhat mitigating the negative sentiment is talks that China will implement additional measures to support the domestic economy in the near future,” said Markus Huber, a trader at City of London Markets.