The Ibex-35 opened Thursday with an advance that could become the fourth consecutive session in positive territory and recovered the psychological level of 9,100 points, after a meeting of the Federal Reserve (Fed) that reinforced the perspective that interest rates have already hit the ceiling in the United States.

The Fed kept interest rates unchanged, as expected, and its chairman, Jerome Powell, said that given the many current uncertainties, the most prudent strategy was to wait, which the markets interpreted as a sign that this cycle of monetary tightening has come to an end.

"Following the Fed meeting, the market maintains a sub-30% probability for a further +25 bp hike towards the end of the year-early 2024, while still pricing in that the first cut could come in mid-2024 (and be the first of three over the next year), although this move will be entirely data-dependent, so we will continue to monitor inflation and growth data, where we continue to have mixed signals," said analysts at the Renta 4 brokerage house.

After the Fed's meeting, it will be the turn of the Bank of England on Thursday, which looks set to keep interest rates at a 15-year high on Thursday and signal that it has no plans to cut them in the near term as it remains locked in a battle against the highest inflation rate among the major economies.

Otherwise, investors are waiting for Apple's results later Thursday and, above all, for the U.S. jobs report due on Friday.

In Europe, the only major macro reference will be the final indicators of the October manufacturing surveys.

On the microeconomic front, in Spain, the quarterly figures of the plasma derivatives group Grifols and the airport manager Aena were released, which reacted on the stock market with increases of 4.3% and 0.8%, respectively.

In the case of Grifols, analysts welcomed the improvement in the gross operating profit forecast.

Overall, at 0806 GMT on Thursday, the selective Spanish stock market index Ibex-35 was up 53.10 points, or 0.59%, to 9,128.10 points, its highest level since October 19, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.70%.

In the banking sector, Santander was up 0.24%, BBVA was down 0.13%, Caixabank was down 0.11%, Sabadell was up 0.2%, Bankinter was up 0.20%, and Unicaja Banco was up 0.61%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.14%, Inditex advanced 0.06%, Iberdrola gained 1.00%, Cellnex gained 1.47%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.29%.

(Report by Tomás Cobos; edited in Spanish by Benjamín Mejías Valencia)