After an earnings season that has barely changed investors' positioning, the Ibex-35 headed into March with its attention focused on the clues about the direction of interest rates.

In February, the Ibex-35 rose by 0.83% and proved unable to break out of the range in which it has moved since the end of November (between 9,800 and 10,250 points), given the uncertainty as to when the European Central Bank (ECB) and the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will begin to cut the cost of debt.

"With the results season almost over, the markets' attention will focus this week on the macro level and the ECB (European Central Bank) meeting," analysts at Renta 4 securities house said in a report for clients.

Among the important news on the monetary and macroeconomic front, highlights include the PMI surveys for the services sector (Tuesday), the European Central Bank meeting (Thursday) and the US labor market reports, with the monthly job creation data as the main course (Friday).

Renta 4 analysts expect no change in interest rates at the ECB meeting, which is not expected to be in a hurry to lower them, while they expect that, regarding US employment, "job creation will moderate after the strong growth in January and that the US economy will continue to be close to 'full employment'".

Renta 4 also highlights Wednesday's semiannual appearance before Congress by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, where they expect him to reiterate the idea of waiting to begin cutting rates.

Against this backdrop, at 08:15 GMT on Monday, the selective Spanish stock market index Ibex-35 fell 4.70 points, or 0.05%, to 10,060.00 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks advanced 0.09%.

Among the stocks to be highlighted, Acciona Energía advanced 3.2%, continuing its positive trend after publishing its quarterly figures, and Iberdrola gained 0.48%, after receiving an improved recommendation from Goldman Sachs analysts. On the other hand, Grifols was still in the doldrums with a fall of almost 6% after the negative reception to last week's results presentation.

Elsewhere, in the banking sector, Santander lost 0.53%, BBVA gained 0.30%, Caixabank advanced 0.61%, Sabadell gained 0.40%, Bankinter gained 0.57%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.37%.

As for large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.13%, Inditex lost 0.12%, Cellnex fell 1.22%, and the oil company Repsol lost 0.10%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos, edited by José Muñoz)