The Spanish stock index Ibex-35 rebounded slightly at Thursday's opening and regained the 9,300-point level, as the upward momentum from fears of a widening of the Hamas-Israel conflict was countered by unfavorable signals from the European Central Bank (ECB).

On Wednesday, comments from the ECB cast doubt on the recent perception among investors that interest rates in the eurozone had peaked, limiting the positive impact on equities of lower oil prices.

The ECB's chief economist said he had not seen sufficient progress in containing inflation, while the head of the Irish central bank said further rate hikes should not be ruled out, something markets were not expecting at all, and the Bundesbank president noted that the "last leg" towards the inflation target may be the most difficult.

Adding to all this was the ECB's new one-year inflation outlook, which was raised by half a point to +4.0%, up from +3.5% previously.

"Although (the ECB) maintained the 3-year forecast at 2.5%, its new 1-year estimate suggests that inflation will take longer than expected to come under control, especially in the face of structural factors (labor market, demographics, de-globalization, energy transition..., all factors outside the ECB's control), which in turn points to it having to keep rates tight (> 2%-2.5%) for a long season," said the Renta 4 brokerage house.

In Spain, the upward trend was reinforced by reports that point to an agreement for the investiture of Pedro Sanchez as Prime Minister, which removes the fear of a repeat election and lack of government for a prolonged period of time.

In any case, the positive impact was moderated by the prospect of maintaining the extraordinary tax applied by the coalition government led by Sánchez to energy companies and banks.

Otherwise, markets will be on the lookout for any new developments on the monetary front, on a day in which there will be interventions by ECB President Christine Lagarde (1730 GMT), as well as by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell (1900 GMT) and other members of the US central bank such as Thomas Barkin (1600 GMT) and Kathleen O'Neill (1700 GMT).

By contrast, the session will be sparse in macroeconomic indicators, with the US weekly unemployment report as the only reference, after the news of a fall in prices in China, where otherwise the focus is on the troubled real estate sector.

Against this backdrop, at 0904 GMT Thursday, Spain's selective Ibex-35 stock market index was up 38.40 points, or 0.41%, to 9,322.20 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 < .FTEU3> index of large European stocks advanced 0.19%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.10%, BBVA gained 0.43%, Caixabank advanced 0.74%, Sabadell gained 1.34%, Bankinter gained 0.03% and Unicaja Banco rose 0.69%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.19%, Inditex advanced 0.38%, Iberdrola gained 1.29%, Cellnex gained 0.37%, and the oil company Repsol rose 1.01%.

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