Madrid - The Madrid stock market was dragged down by the international market pessimism on Friday, with the Ibex-35 index down 7.5 per cent to 9,160 points at mid-morning.

The telecommunications giant Telefonica plunged by 9.16 per cent, the Santander and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria
(BBVA) banks 8.93 and 7.77 per cent respectively, and the energy company Iberdrola and the airline Iberia both by 7.63 per cent.

The Ibex threatened to fall below the "psychological" level of 9,000 points, but recovered later on. (dpa)