(Bloomberg) – Banco Santander SA has become the first bank in the EU in nearly a decade now as investors are pouring into the industry.
Shares of Spanish lenders rose 1.8% to €6.62 on Tuesday, raising their market cap to €100.3 billion. The EU’s last time the EU’s banks ended the trading day at that level, which was in 2015 – when Santander was previously at that score.
In recent years, European banks’ share prices have been soaring after the European Central Bank ended a period of negative interest rates in 2022, greatly improving bank profitability. The group’s lenders have since strengthened investor spending.
Santander is currently the only EU bank with a market capitalization of over €100 billion, but various other lenders, including BNP Paribas SA and Intesa Sanpaolo Spa, are not behind.
In addition to the EU, Switzerland’s UBS Group AG has higher market value. London-based lender HSBC Holdings Plc has also surpassed the trademark in recent years, including during the period before Brexit.
While the ECB began to reverse some tax cuts last year, the recent specter of massive public spending in Europe has brought new growth to bank stocks. Banks in the region have recently achieved their best winning streak since the turn of the millennium.
“We have maintained a positive view of the European banking sector after our preliminary assessment of the European fiscal announcements led by Germany and the EU,” JPMorgan analysts said in a note on Tuesday.
Santander’s stock has lagged behind the industry before, but has been close to 50% since the beginning of the year. This makes lenders one of the best performers in European banking.
Like many competitors, Spain’s largest bank recently released new plans to strengthen funds intended to return investors. Chairman Ana Botin said in a Bloomberg TV interview earlier this month that the bank’s growth will focus on the Americas.
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