The Ibex 35 ended April with an increase of almost 2% in the last week of the month, which led it to draw annual maximum levels. Despite this latest impulse, still less than half of the values of the benchmark index in Spain recover the levels prior to the well-known Covid crash .
Today, there are 13 firms that have completely overcome the pandemic since that fateful February 2020, when the fall that dragged stock markets around the world to unusual declines began. There are 22 more .
This push, coinciding with the beginning of the quarterly accounts results season, allowed the Spanish stock market to close its session last Friday at 8,815 points. However, it would still need to recover 13% to reach the 10,083.6 points that it marked just before the collapse caused by the pandemic .
Among the 13 stocks that successfully overcome the virus, there are only two of them that the consensus of analysts recommend selling, these are Bankinter and Viscofan (see chart) . Due to its strong appreciation, Fluidra stands out . The Catalan has been capturing the interest of investors for months.
And it is precisely the attraction that it arouses that has allowed it to gain a foothold in the Ibex, replacing Bankia, last March. In this way, the company specialized in swimming pool equipment not only recovers its pre- crash price , but also recorded a 117% increase in this period .
Right behind Fluidra, Siemens Gamesa is positioned . The pandemic is known to have functioned as an accelerator of trends, including interest in green businesses. Thus, the leading renewable energy company becomes the second Ibex company that best stops Covid-19. Well, since February 19 of last year, just before the famous crash, they have almost doubled the price of their titles .
Closely following Siemens is PharmaMar . The pharmaceutical company rises more than 86% in this period and, in addition, it becomes the second most bullish company in the Spanish index in the four months that go into exercise.
The energy company Solaria and the steelmaker ArcelorMittal , with advances of 71% and 56%, respectively, complete this top 5 of the companies that present a better evolution in this time.
With more moderate increases, although higher than 10%, Acerinox (+ 26%), Acciona (+ 23%), CIE Automotive (+ 17%), Viscofan (+ 11%) and Cellnex (+ 11%) are also trading on their pre-pandemic price and completely overcome the virus.
Finally, with a smaller margin, but in the same way fully recovered, Almirall and Iberdrola . Both exceeded pre-pandemic levels in Friday’s session. The drugmaker is already 0.23% above the pre-Covid price after Friday’s session. Iberdrola shares, for their part, exceed these levels with a variation of 0.13%.
On the verge of recovering
Currently, there are four firms that are less than 10% from returning to those levels prior to the widespread falls as a result of the coronavirus. They are CaixaBank , the hotel company Meliá , the Inditex group and the construction company ACS .
The closest to a full recovery is CaixaBank. After a good last week, in which it stood out as the seventh most bullish company on the market, it is already around 3% of its goal: to return to those 2.75 euros that it marked on February 19 of last year.
Meliá, one of the companies hard hit by the virus due to its dedication to the tourism sector, would still have 8% to advance . The same as Inditex, which, despite the last bearish blow to the textile sector due to the Chinese cotton crisis, has recovered and once again marked an annual increase of almost 15% . Which allows you to stay at that 8%.
A little further away, but less than 10 percentage points, ACS would need to score a 9.7% rise to fully recover from the SARS-CoV-2 hit.
Far from recovery
At the tail of the expected recovery, turned into the worst stop of the Spanish selective, is IAG . The airline is still a long way from its peers. It would need a 128% boost to resume its price on February 19, 2020. Despite recovering 30% in 2021, being the fifth best performing company this year, it still has a long way to go.
The good news came from the return of transoceanic flights. Last week, “Delta Airlines publicly acknowledged its hopes that air traffic between the US and the UK will be reopened by the beginning of the summer,” the first market for IAG, “and this is just the beginning of a growing interest” to return. to fly on transatlantic routes “, they point out from Credit Suisse.
For IAG, the US is the third most relevant market in terms of revenue. Experts are optimistic and recommend buying, based on consensus.
The second in line in this full recovery race is Telefónica . For the telecommunications company to fully recover from the virus, a rise close to 69% is necessary . The recommendation of the analysts is to maintain, although it is one of the telecos where the most improvement this year .
Banco Sabadell , for its part, is the most bullish of the entire Spanish index so far this year . In this four-month period, the entity leads the increases with an increase of almost 50%. But it still requires a 70% pull to return to the 0.89 euros it registered the day before the crash. It is the third furthest.
