The Spanish stock index Ibex-35 closed with little variation on Tuesday despite the entry of buy orders in some stocks, in a market unsettled by fears of further interest rate hikes in the United States, which caused declines on Wall Street.

The day started with a bullish bias after the disappointment of a smaller-than-expected interest rate cut by the Chinese central bank, which added to the background of concerns about the persistence of inflation in Western economies and the consequent willingness of central banks to continue to tighten financing conditions.

Analysts at Bankinter noted that Tuesday's trading day was one of transition, awaiting Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's testimony before the US Congress on Wednesday, and the Bank of England's expected interest rate hike on Thursday.

"After last week's generous bounces, the risk posed by Powell (from questions asked of him) and the rate hikes (the most important being the BoE's, obviously), it would be normal to have a week of mild corrections," these experts said.

Bankinter noted the interest in the meetings of other central banks - Norway, Switzerland and Turkey - on Thursday.

After the previous day's cut, Spain's selective Ibex-35 stock market index rose 7.90 points, or 0.08%, to 9,439.80 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks fell 0.54%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 0.59%, BBVA fell 0.85%, Caixabank gave up 1.17%, Sabadell fell 0.54%, Bankinter dropped 1.32%, and Unicaja Banco lost 0.48%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.27%, Inditex advanced 0.62%, Iberdrola gained 2.05%, Cellnex fell 0.36%, and the oil company Repsol lost 2.02%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos)