The Spanish selective closed with slight gains, after trading with large fluctuations during the day, due to the doubts of investors in search of new incentives to justify the extension of the recent bullish streak.

After Monday's holiday closure, the markets recovered the reference of Wall Street, which received with disparate trends the results of Morgan Stanley, which rose 7% after beating analysts' estimates, and Goldman Sachs, which showed a cut of almost 7% when its figures were below expectations.

In a week lacking in important macroeconomic references, investors are still awaiting news on the central banks' fight against inflation, in a context of concern about the threat of recession.

"Markets are still in a profit-taking phase, but there is a bit of vertigo after the recent accumulation of good news, such as the easing of inflation in European countries," said Francisco Quintana, director of investment strategy at ING Spain.

"However, the macroeconomy does not boast the rises that the indices have had in the first days of the year. The scenario is still very fragile and vulnerable, also from a geopolitical point of view," added the analyst.

"The party has to end at some point."

During the morning, the focus was on the slowdown in the Chinese economy, which was largely already discounted and, in any case, reinforced speculation about further stimulus from the authorities to spur a revival.

In contrast, the ZEW indicator, which measures economic sentiment in Germany, rose by more than 40 points in December, from -23.3 in November to a positive 16.9, helping to allay fears of recession.

"This turnaround has been helped by the 80% plunge in natural gas prices in Europe from their highs, which has led to a consecutive drop in inflation. The reopening of the Chinese economy, which is a key source of demand for German exports, has also helped," Ben Laidler, global markets strategist at eToro, said in a note.

Spain's selective Ibex-35 stock market closed up 19.30 points on Tuesday, up 0.22%, to 8,890.40 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks rose 0.31%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.27%, BBVA scored 0.27%, Caixabank gave up 0.21%, Sabadell fell 0.54%, Bankinter dropped 1.01% and Unicaja Banco lost 0.41%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.22%, Inditex dropped 0.22%, Iberdrola ended flat, Cellnex gained 2.63%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.78%.

(Information by Matteo Allievi; edited by Tomás Cobos)