Apr 20 (Reuters) - The Spanish stock index Ibex-35 showed a cautious advance on Thursday, in what could be a seventh consecutive up day and its longest streak since last August, encouraged by the results of Bankinter in Spain while the market interprets the latest global macroeconomic news.

In recent days, data have been released that point to a persistence of inflation on both sides of the Atlantic, something confirmed on Wednesday by the "Beige Book" of the Federal Reserve (Fed), to which are added the warnings about a clear stagnation of activity, which, however, could be more moderate than expected.

In this regard, economists consulted by Reuters predicted in a survey the probability of a brief and shallow recession this year, while forecasting that the Fed will offer a final interest rate hike of 25 basis points in May and then hold rates steady for the rest of 2023.

By contrast, Klaas Knot, a member of the European Central Bank's governing council, said in an interview with the Irish Times newspaper that he is "not uncomfortable" with current market expectations, which foresee an interest rate hike from the current 3% to 3.85%.

On Thursday it was Bankinter's turn in Spain, with better-than-expected figures that boosted the stock by 4%.

Elsewhere in the banking sector, Santander rose 1.42%, BBVA gained 1.53%, Caixabank advanced 3.14%, Sabadell gained 3.06% and Unicaja Banco rose 2.29%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.51%, Inditex dropped 0.44%, Iberdrola lost 0.21%, Cellnex fell 0.10%, and the oil company Repsol lost 0.41%.

As for the selective Spanish stock market Ibex-35, at 07:05 GMT on Thursday it was up 36.60 points, 0.39%, to 9,531.40 points, its highest level since February 21, 2020, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks fell 0.07%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos; edited by Darío Fernández)