The Spanish stock market index Ibex-35 started Tuesday higher on hopes for the Chinese economy due to the state aid plans for its financial market, in a climate of expectation for the publication of corporate results reports and important macroeconomic indicators in the coming days.

Chinese equities rallied strongly on Tuesday on support from state funds, efforts to curb short selling and news that President Xi Jinping will address the stock market situation with financial regulators.

The positive news from China comes on the heels of a U.S. ISM services sector survey that beat market expectations and thus slightly dampened hopes for expected Federal Reserve rate cuts this year, which had already moderated following Friday's strong U.S. jobs data.

The debate over the direction of interest rates in the major economies will shift to Europe on Tuesday, where the European Central Bank (ECB) will release December consumer inflation expectations, according to Renta 4.

"(...) we will see whether or not the positive tone is maintained after the substantial moderation of the previous data, to 3.2% at one year (vs 4% in October) and 2.2% at three years (vs 2.5% in October)," the Renta 4 securities house said in its daily report.

"A moderation on the other hand logical in a context of practical economic stagnation (today retail sales in the Eurozone could fall -1% in December vs -0.3% previously)," added these analysts.

In any case, investors will continue to await important macroeconomic data to be published in the coming days, as well as the quarterly figures of large companies and, in the field of international politics, the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Middle East, with special attention to the possibility of a cessation of Israel's war offensive in Gaza.

In this regard, the Spanish bank Unicaja rose by 5.49% due to the positive reception given to the process of cleaning up its balance sheet, despite recording losses in the fourth quarter.

On the other hand, energy stocks such as Acciona Energía, which fell by 1.35%, and Solaria, which fell by 2.27%, in both cases after Goldman Sachs downgraded its recommendation.

In the rest of the banking sector, Santander rose 1.09%, BBVA gained 1.05%, Caixabank advanced 0.83%, Sabadell gained 0.87%, and Bankinter gained 0.61%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.14%, Inditex advanced 0.88%, Iberdrola dropped 0.36%, Cellnex fell 0.18%, and the oil company Repsol rose 1.62%.

At 08:05 GMT on Tuesday, Spain's selective stock market index Ibex-35 was up 57.00 points, or 0.57%, to 9,998.30 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.56%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos; edited by Javi West Larrañaga)