Indra and US oil companies see their stock prices soar following the US attack on Venezuela

BarcelonaThe multinational energy company Repsol and the defense company Indra are the two companies that have benefited most on the stock market from the United States' military intervention in Venezuela, which has resulted in the arrest of the Latin American country's president, Nicolás Maduro. In the US, oil companies opened the day with strong gains.

In the case of Repsol, the Spanish group most exposed to the Venezuelan market, this represents a 3.47% increase on Monday, reaching €16.98 per share. Last year, it exported 24 million barrels of oil extracted from Venezuelan fields, which at the current price of around $60 per barrel is equivalent to approximately $1.4 billion (€1.2 billion).

However, what is most valuable to the Spanish oil company are the crude oil reserves it has the right to exploit in the coming years, equivalent to about 256 million barrels, worth $15.3 billion or about €13 billion at current prices, according to published calculations. ExpansionThis figure represents 15% of the total oil reserves exploited by Repsol worldwide.

As for Indra, its share price rose 9.58% on Monday to €54.35 per share, continuing the upward trend of the last two years (in June 2022, a share of the group was worth less than €8). The multinational technology company has a significant defense division, which causes its stock market value to increase whenever there is an armed conflict or geopolitical uncertainty rises. In this case, the US intervention in Venezuela and US President Donald Trump's insistence on the need to control the Danish territory of Greenland are bolstering the arguments of those advocating for increased defense spending in Europe, from which European companies in the sector, such as Indra, would benefit. Among the other Spanish companies with direct interests in Venezuela, BBVA closed Monday with a moderate increase of 1.18%, while the insurer Mapfre registered a 0.8% gain. The Basque-based bank holds a 16% market share in the South American country through its subsidiary Banco Provincial and is the leading privately owned financial institution there. As for the fashion giant Inditex—parent company of brands such as Zara, Stradivarius, and Bershka, among others—which also operates in Venezuela, it experienced a slight decline of 0.21%. Telefónica fell 0.57%, but in November announced its withdrawal from Venezuela, following its exit from other Latin American markets. US oil companies rise, Canadian companies fall

Like Repsol, US oil companies are also seeing gains in the markets. Exxon Mobil, the leading company in the sector in the United States, was up 2.48% at 6:00 PM, while Chevron rose 5.43%. Trump asserted on Saturday at a press conference that the exploitation of Venezuelan oil by US companies would be one of his administration's priorities in a hypothetical political transition in the Caribbean country. In contrast, Canada's two main energy companies, Cenovus and Suncor, which are also listed on Wall Street, were down 7.44% and 3.7%, respectively, at the same time. This is due to the reduced US dependence on Canadian crude if Trump's plans in Venezuela are ultimately implemented as he says, and also to the threats that the US president has been making to his northern neighbors, as in Greenland, even going so far as to demand that Canada become part of the US.

Despite the ups and downs in company markets, the price of oil has not registered major variations: the price of Brent crude, the European benchmark, has risen 1.51% to €61.69 per barrel.