The main Spanish stock market index opened Tuesday extending its advance towards 9,000 points, in a context of economic optimism in view of the reopening of China, the easing of energy prices and hopes of monetary easing.

Inflation and the possibility of a recession continue to dominate the markets' attention, so during the session the manufacturing and services PMIs for the United States and the Eurozone will provide a reading on the economic situation, a week before the Fed and ECB meetings.

Although the trend has been contractionary, markets are optimistic that they will show signs of improvement following the consensus that the peak in inflation has passed, at a time of easing energy prices in the wake of the crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine.

Still, central banks continue with their hawkish rhetoric. Hikes are expected from both the Federal Reserve (two hikes of up to 75 basis points to reach a maximum rate of around 5% in June) and the European Central Bank (+50 basis points expected at its meeting on February 2).

Part of the optimism also comes from the reopening of the world's second largest economy, China, which recently began its Lunar New Year holiday period and whose markets remain closed.

At 08:01 GMT on Tuesday, the Spanish selective stock market index Ibex-35 was up 21.30 points, or 0.24%, to 8,965.40 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.24%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.19%, BBVA gained 0.47%, Caixabank advanced 0.35%, Sabadell gained 0.33%, Bankinter gained 0.09%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.50%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.22%, Inditex advanced 0.40%, Iberdrola gained 0.14%, Cellnex fell 0.11%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.03%.

(Information by José Muñoz; edited by Darío Fernández)