Economic activity slowed somewhat in the second quarter, particularly in advanced economies, due to trade tensions which affected exports and investment, as well as one-off factors. This slowdown was particularly notable in the EU. Forecasts for 2019 point to global GDP growth of around 3.25% (vs. 3.6% in 2018).

This slowdown, combined with the downward bias of the balance of risks and lower-than-expected inflation, has lessened market expectations of official interest rates - backed by central banks themselves - which are now pricing in cuts to the Fed and ECB benchmark rates. Latin America's central banks have greater room for manoeuvre.

In Spain, the main market where the Bank is listed, the share price ended June 2019 at EUR 4.081, 2.7% higher than at the end of 2018. This performance was below that of the Ibex 35 benchmark Spanish index, which rose 7.7%, and that of the DJ Stoxx 50 and MSCI World Banks (+15.2% and +9.5%, repectively), but above DJ Stoxx Banks, the main Europe banking index (+0,9%).

At 28 June 2019, Banco Santander was the number one bank in the Eurozone and the nineteenth-largest financial institution in the world by market cap – at EUR 66,253 million.

Its stock had weightings in the DJ Stoxx 50 and DJ Stoxx Banks indices of 1.8% and 8.1%, respectively, and 13.9% in the Spanish Ibex 35 index at the end of June.

In the first half, 10,262 million Santander shares were traded, for a cash amount of EUR 43,668 million – the highest volume for any Euro Stoxx constituent – with a liquidity ratio of 63%.

Over 82 million shares were traded daily, for a cash amount of EUR 349 million.

Source: Bloomberg and Madrid Stock Exchange at 28/06/2019.