After suffering its biggest weekly decline in almost fifteen months, the Spanish IBEX 35 stock index posted a moderate gain on Monday as investors took advantage of cheaper prices in some stocks.

However, caution prevailed in a context of uncertainty about the interest rate outlook for this year and fears of greater political instability in Europe after the European Parliament elections, which showed a rise of the far-right and led to early elections in France.

Nor did the complex macroeconomic picture painted by data released on Monday in China, where industrial production came in below expectations and the slump in the real estate sector continued to weigh on the economy as a whole, contribute to optimism.

"(The) domestic situation (in China) adds to an increasingly complicated external context in the face of tariffs imposed on Chinese products by the U.S. and Europe," said Renta 4 brokerage house.

These analysts pointed out that this week the attention of the financial markets will be mainly on the preliminary PMI surveys for June (Friday), "which could continue to show the resilience of the US cycle (slight deterioration expected in services, although at levels of clear expansion, and stability in manufacturing) and the gradual improvement of economic activity in the Eurozone in both manufacturing and services".

There will also be labor costs (Monday) and final CPI for May (Tuesday), the ZEW business confidence index in Germany (Tuesday), retail sales, industrial production (Tuesday) and housing data (Thursday and Friday) in the United States, and there will be monetary policy meetings of the central banks of Sweden (Tuesday), Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom (Thursday), as well as interventions by members of the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.

At 0715 GMT on Monday, the Spanish selective stock market index IBEX 35 was up 47.90 points, or 0.44%, to 11,040.20 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.39%. Last week, the Spanish selective index lost 3.62%, its biggest decline since the week ended March 17, 2023.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.18%, BBVA gained 0.73%, Caixabank advanced 0.68%, Sabadell gained 1.03%, Bankinter gained 0.42%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.80%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.97%, Inditex advanced 0.87%, Iberdrola gained 0.16%, Cellnex fell 0.56%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.63%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos; edited by Benjamín Mejías Valencia)