The Spanish equities market closed the year with 2.29 million trades, 2.1% more than in December 2022. The cumulative effective volume traded through December was EUR 301.2 billion. At December 31, the Spanish stock market had a capitalization of 1.2 trillion, up 16.8% on the previous year. The IBEX35® also followed this positive trend, rising by 22.8%. Including dividends distributed, the index's total return reached 28%. Capital increases amounted to EUR 4,245 million (5,572 million in 2022).
BME Growth added 10 new companies, 3 of which were SOCIMIS. Companies already listed on this market raised more than EUR 540 million in capital increases. To continue supporting companies at all stages of their growth, BME launched BME Scaleup, a market aimed at companies in the early stages of development.
BME's Fixed Income markets channeled more than €405 billion of new financing to the public and private sector, 8.7% more than in 2022. Particularly relevant for the AIAF Market was the entry into force in September of the new Securities Markets Law, which transferred to BME certain powers in admission to trading, facilitating issuance in the regulated market. Since then, new issues of bonds and promissory notes have been registered by Caixabank, Bankinter, Banco Santander, BBVA Global Markets, Abanca, Unicaja Banco, Banco Sabadell and Deutsche Bank. Meanwhile, the MARF, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in October, continued to grow with the debut of 12 new companies and more than EUR 15 billion issued, 11.6% more than in 2022.
The MEFF Derivatives market successfully implemented new functionalities in retail trading and introduced new features in options on the IBEX 35®. In addition, new members joined both the financial derivatives (TP ICAP Europe) and energy derivatives (Pavilion Energy Spain) segments, improving the overall diversity and competitiveness of the market.