The main Spanish stock market index opened Thursday with a rebound of more than 2%, relieved in part by the support given by the Swiss central bank to Credit Suisse, although the climate of nervousness persists in the financial markets, which are now focusing their gaze on the ECB meeting.

After the debacle of the previous day, in which the Ibex-35 suffered its biggest fall in almost sixteen months (November 26, 2021), the European stock markets rose on Thursday and Credit Suisse rebounded 30% after the entity obtained a 54 billion dollar lifeline from the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to shore up liquidity and investor confidence, which the previous day had taken its shares to historic lows.

Concern about Credit Suisse added to the panic that began last week with the collapse of two U.S. banks specializing in lending to the technology sector, overwhelmed by the sharp rise in the cost of loans.

Although the enormous size of Credit Suisse - considered "too big to fail" because of the repercussions it would have on the financial system - leads many investors to believe that the SNB will do everything necessary to avoid greater evils, investors remain on alert in case new breaches emerge in the global banking system.

The pressure will now shift to the European Central Bank (ECB), which meets on Thursday and will be the first monetary institution to have to rethink an interest rate hike in the face of market turmoil.

"While the president has telegraphed in all her appearances since the previous meeting in February a +50 bp (basis points) hike to 3% (deposit rate) to deal with uncomfortably high inflation, (...) the financial instability unleashed by the bankruptcy of SVB in the US and the nervousness around the situation of Credit Suisse have led the market to lower its expectations and expect only +25 bp today," said the securities house Renta 4.

These analysts point out that in the case of the ECB the market is now discounting only two or three more 25 bp hikes, to 3%-3.25%, while for the Fed only one more 25 bp hike is anticipated, to 4.75%, with a subsequent 75 bp decline later in the year, to 3.75%.

"We recall in this regard that the ECB's target is 2% inflation, but that it also has to ensure financial stability. Difficult situation for the ECB," they added.

Against this backdrop, at 0801 GMT on Thursday, the selective Spanish stock market index Ibex-35 was up 177.70 points, or 2.03%, to 8,936.80 points. For its part, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks advanced 0.87%.

The banking sector, which was heavily penalized on Wednesday, was the main driver of the Spanish index: Santander rose 4.01%, BBVA gained 4.79%, Caixabank advanced 4.21%, Sabadell gained 3.92%, Bankinter gained 3.58%, and Unicaja Banco rose 2.35%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.51%, Inditex advanced 2.57%, Iberdrola dropped 0.18%, Cellnex gained 0.56%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.34%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos; edited by Benjamín Mejías Valencia).