Deutsche Bank sharply increased its valuation of Spanish construction group ACS, lifting its target price by 61% and recommending the shares as a buy, giving a strong boost to the company’s recent stock rally.
Geopolitical developments have taken a negative turn, with the prospect of a US‑Iran agreement fading under new US demands. Oil price pressures have revived, hampering the push for new record highs on European stock markets. After two days of stagnation, the IBEX 35 is testing fresh highs, led by Repsol and Amadeus.
Generalized pressure on software firms has left Amadeus lagging on the Ibex in 2025 and 2026. JPMorgan analysts today increased their target price for the stock, opening the way for a notable market recovery.
Spanish listed companies have paid €35.198 billion in dividends for the first seven months of 2026, up 20% year‑on‑year, with €8.798 billion paid in the most recent month, 22% higher than the same month in 2025.
Spain’s public treasury announced that it will conduct the last auction of August this week, offering short‑term Treasury bills with maturities of three and nine months, following the cancellation of the August 20 auction of longer‑term bonds.
Analysts consider the three lagging IBEX stocks—Grifols, Solaria and Cellnex—to have significant upside, estimating a double‑digit move toward their target prices.
The Federal Reserve granted approval for Spain’s Banco Santander to purchase U.S. lender Webster Bank, setting a deadline of 15 days to three months for the transaction to close, thereby expanding Santander’s footprint in the United States.
Santander, Inditex and BBVA together with Iberdrola, which together represent over 40% of the IBEX 35, have reasons to keep rising. The selective index could climb about 4.5% from its record level. BBVA closed just 56 million euros below Iberdrola in market capitalisation, threatening the electric utility’s third‑place ranking by size.
Jefferies lowered its recommendation on the Spanish REIT Merlin, citing increased risks in its data centre portfolio, and stopped recommending it as a buy for investors.
Spanish asset manager Azvalor cautioned that European equity markets are expensive, warned against the growing popularity of passive index funds and trendy assets such as cryptocurrencies, and announced that it attracted €460 million of net new money in H1, bringing total AUM to €4.8 billion.