The so-called Ibex Gender Equality accumulates a revaluation of more than 6.4% in the last week after the bump suffered during its first full year of life, in line with the collapse of the markets, and joins the bandwagon of rises in the equities at the start of the year. This rise is higher than that of the Ibex 35, which so far in 2023 has recorded an advance of 5.65%.
2022 has been a bad year for the stock market marked by the invasion of Ukraine, the rise in inflation and the rise in interest rates. In this context, the index has dropped 7.83% in the last twelve months, more than two points above the Ibex 35, which ended the year with annual losses of 5.56%.
After touching the minimum of 7,377 points last October, which coincided with that of the main index of the Spanish stock market, the ‘Ibex for gender’ gained momentum during November, a rebound that was not enough to compensate for the falls in December due to the lack of the Christmas rally. To date, its maximum peak was reached last June, when it reached above the level of 9,200 points.
Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME) gave birth to this ‘select club’ on November 30, 2021 with the aim of integrating companies that have between 25% and 75% female presence on their board of directors, while for senior management positions between 15% and 85% are requested. The quota is lower than what is dictated by the CNMV code to include those who do not reach 30%, but who are on the “right path” in terms of parity.
At the time of its debut on the trading floor, it was made up of 30 companies, to which another 17 have been added after the review in June (one every twelve months) and which has been saved with the departure of Adolfo Domínguez, Almirall, Global Dominion , Amrest and Bodegas Riojanas. Thus, to date, this parity thermometer is made up of 45 firms: 20 Ibex 35 companies, 12 small-caps, 7 firms from the Ibex ‘Medium Cap’ and another 6 from the General Index of the Madrid Stock Exchange (IGBM). ) ).
This parity thermometer is made up of 45 signatures
Among them are the six Ibex banks, energy, real estate, tourism or telecommunications firms. This Monday closed with an advance of 0.95%, up to 8,542 points, driven by Audax Renovables (+13.95%), Duro Felguera (+8.27%), Prisa (+6.33%), Tubos Reunidos (+5.63%) and Deoleo (+4.90%). On the contrary, Ence has fallen 2.04%, Línea Directa has dropped 1.97% and Unicaja Banco 1.66%.
Gender parity improves in 2022 in banking
The effort of large companies to achieve gender parity has intensified in recent years. The rate has quadrupled since 2018, when only ten listed companies met the requirements in this regard. In the case of the Ibex 35, by 2022 the goal was set that four out of ten members of the board of directors included women, compared to 34% recorded in 2021.
In the absence of knowing if the companies have reached the objective, a report prepared by EY shows that the Spanish banking sector has done its homework, with a female penetration rate on boards of directors reaching 40%. Despite this, the figure is still lower than the European average, which is two points above, up to 42% of women, compared to 58% of men.
Slightly more than fifteen Spanish companies are included in the ‘Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index’, which measures gender equality based on data on female leadership, wage parity between the sexes and support for women. From a list of more than 410 global firms, this represents a weight of around 4% in the index, which suggests that the Spanish fabric still has a business road ahead in this area.
