The Spanish stock index broke through the 10,000-point barrier at the start of the session on Wednesday, awaiting comments from the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve on the start of rate cuts.

The focus of the day will be on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's press conference, looking for any clues as to when the central bank might start cutting rates in an economy that has been surprisingly resilient.

"Looking ahead to the Fed meeting, we expect no change in terms of interest rates, which would remain at 5.25%-5.5%," wrote analysts at Renta 4. "We will see what the tone of the speech is, especially considering that the U.S. economy, despite moderation in inflation, continues to show quite a bit of strength."

"(This) could continue to cool market rate cut expectations, which remain in our view overly optimistic both in terms of the amount of cuts (up to 6 this year 4 R4e and 3 from the Fed's 'dot plot') and the timing of their start (42% probability of a first cut in March vs. June R4e)," they added.

Meanwhile, the world's second largest economy was reeling after dismal Chinese manufacturing data in January highlighting the loss of steam in the post-pandemic recovery, which the government is trying to shore up.

At 0813 GMT on Wednesday, Spain's selective Ibex-35 stock market index was up 19.20 points, or 0.19%, to 10,058.50 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.08%.

In monthly terms, the Spanish index was on track to close the first month of 2024 with a decline of 0.37%.

In the banking sector, BBVA gained 0.81%, Caixabank advanced 0.45%, Sabadell gained 0.46%, Bankinter gained 0.42%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.34%.

Santander rose 1.78% after increasing its net profit by 28% in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.11%, Inditex gave up 1.08%, Iberdrola gained 0.09%, Cellnex gained 0.66%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.70%.

(Information by José Muñoz; edited by Benjamín Mejías Valencia)