The main Spanish stock market index opened with a hesitant trend on Wednesday, in a market reluctant to take risky positions until the recent evolution of inflation in the United States is known.

After a speech by Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell that clarified little, attention is now focused on the US CPI, which will be released on Thursday and which could determine the institution's next decisions on the cost of borrowing.

Analysts at Renta 4 highlighted in their daily report "the lack of clues about the evolution of the Fed's monetary policy in Jerome Powell's statements yesterday, despite the weakness shown by some recent macro data and the moderation in inflationary pressures, which are in contrast to the 'hawkish' tone (in favor of tightening monetary policy) of recent speeches by several Fed members, which point to long rates for a longer period of time".

Beyond the CPI horizon, investors are also looking ahead to the results that the major US banks will begin to unveil on Friday.

After a flying start to the year--five sessions up nearly 500 points--at 08:05 GMT on Wednesday, Spain's Ibex-35 was up 13.40 points, or 0.15%, to 8,726.10 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.17%.

Cellnex fell by 0.71% following the resignation of its CEO in the midst of a change of strategy.

In contrast, the plasma derivatives group Grifols was the best early riser, with an increase of 3.73%.

Among the other large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.50%, Inditex advanced 0.26%, Iberdrola lost 0.23%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.47%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.16%, BBVA gained 0.11%, Caixabank advanced 0.18%, Sabadell gained 0.48%, Bankinter gained 0.53%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.99%.

(Information provided by Tomás Cobos; edited by Darío Fernández).