It was a black Monday. The 16th of March was marked by the worst reasons: the reference index for the Madrid Stock Exchange hit the bottom registering 6.107 points, its lowest since 2015. But the impact caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on this market went further. During the month of March alone, the index decreased 22.33%, reaching its lowest value since 1998, highlighted newspaper Cinco Días this Wednesday.
The first quarter of 2020, although with ups and downs, confirmed the negative trajectory. Nevertheless, it closed the last day of the quarter with 6.785 points, showing a recovery.
Colonial, one of the largest Spanish REITs, entered this fluctuation market. Although its shares’ trajectory decreased until mid-March, during the last few days of the month the REIT started recovering with a positive trajectory. It still ended the month with a price of 8.63 euro per share, 29.8% lower than the 12.3 euro per share it was valued at, at the start of the month. The break caused by the shares’ devaluation lowered the company’s capitalisation to 4.387 million euro on the 31st of March, 24% less when compared to the end of last year.
On the other hand, REIT Merlin Properties still hasn’t shown any signs of recovery. The value of its shares dropped during March and finished the first quarter at 6.87 euro per share. This is 42% less than the value registered at the beginning of the month (11.88 euro per share). And the consequences are obvious: its capitalization in March is almost half of the capitalization registered at the end of 2019.
The Madrid Stock Exchange Index’s fall started in mid-February. Up until then, the first months of the year showed a stabilization of the market with values always above 9.000 points. It should be noted that on the 19th of February this index even surpassed the 10.000 point mark, registering the highest value of the previous 12 months.