IBEX-35

Catalonia's powerful business leaders are starting to lose their patience with an increasingly bitter tussle over an independence referendum deemed illegal by Madrid.

The European Commission has hiked 'anti-dumping' duties on imports of hot-rolled flat steel products from China already in place. The decision has angered Beijing, which has promised to respond.

The duties on the Chinese steel products have been increased to 22.6 percent from 13.2 percent following a complaint from EU producers ArcelorMittal, Tata Steel and ThyssenKrupp.

Spain's Repsol has entered a so-called farm-in agreement with Energean Oil & Gas for a 60 percent stake in two onshore blocks in western Greece, Energean Oil said on Friday.

Under a farm-in agreement, an oil and gas company acquires an interest in a lease owned by another group.

Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev has vehemently denied reports that the first drilling at Khan Asparuh offshore block in the Black Sea has shown no evidence of energy deposits.

Bulgaria's Deputy Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov has refrained from elaborating on reports that an offshore gas exploration at the Black Sea block of Khan Asparuh found no deposits.

"The information as to whether there are oil and gas is to be processed and passed on to the Ministry of Energy," Stankov has told the Bulgarian National Radio.

ArcelorMittal said on Feb. 5 falling commodity prices pummelled its performance last year, pushing its net loss to almost $8.0 billion (7.1 billion euros) but the world's largest steelmaker said it was making progress on cutting costs.

European and U.S. steel producers are only slowly emerging from a 2008 sector meltdown, but already they are faced with a new challenge, the Chinese dumping.

Chinese steel is overabundant since a sharp slowdown in the Asian giant's economy has sapped domestic demand, and is shipping to world markets at cut-down prices.

By Cecile Vannucci

Equity markets in Spain and Greece fell, while European stocks were little changed as holidays across the region curbed trading volume.

Net profit more than doubled at Spanish lender BBVA in the first quarter from a year ago, as its Turkish arm, Garanti Bankasi also increases profits. 

Like Spanish peer Santander, BBVA makes more than 80 percent of its profit overseas, a model that helped it to counter a double-dip recession at home in recent years.

Several hundred people gathered in Zenica on Sunday, accusing the ArcelorMittal steel factory of polluting the environment and the authorities of doing little to force the company to install air filters to tackle the problem. 

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