Spain's main stock market index opened with a downward trend on Thursday, at a start of the session between the meetings of the two major central banks, whose recent relentless tone in the fight against inflation is under scrutiny by the markets.

The Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, but signaled in its new projections that borrowing costs will likely rise another half percentage point this year in light of a stronger-than-expected economy and a slower decline in inflation.

However, analysts at Renta 4 noted in their daily report that such an increase is far from guaranteed: "The market does not believe the Fed: the dot plot suggests two more hikes, but everything will depend on the data".

The dot plot is a document that reflects where Fed members (anonymously) expect interest rates to be over the next few years.

"The market only gives a 10% probability that 2023 will close with rates at the 5.50%-5.75% that marks the new dot plot, to the extent that Powell states that it will be the inflation and employment data that will have the last word, and it is not even clear whether the next increase will take place at the July meeting (it will be a 'live' meeting) or whether we will have to wait until September," explained Renta 4.

Something similar is happening with the European Central Bank (ECB), as experts believe that the end of the tightening cycle is nearing its end, although it is very likely that on Thursday it will raise rates to their highest level in 22 years and leave the door open to further hikes.

Some economists point out that expectations of an economic slowdown in the coming months, while the rate hikes implemented so far take effect, could be changing the opinion of some ECB leaders, who on Thursday will update their macroeconomic forecast table.

Against this backdrop, at 07:05 GMT on Thursday, the selective Spanish stock market index Ibex-35 fell 24.70 points, or 0.26%, to 9,408.10 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks fell 0.33%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 1.26%, BBVA rose 0.21%, Caixabank ceded 0.46%, Sabadell fell 0.54%, Bankinter dropped 0.28% and Unicaja Banco lost 0.74%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.33%, Inditex advanced 0.79% after receiving an "overweight" recommendation from Bernstein, Iberdrola dropped 0.17%, Cellnex fell 0.08%, and the oil company Repsol lost 0.30%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos; edited by Darío Fernández)