The Spanish stock index Ibex-35 opened higher on Wednesday, in a climate of optimism that the US inflation data to be published later in the session points to the end of the US Federal Reserve's rate hikes.

Although markets rate the possibility of a 25 basis point hike in July at 92.4%, it is possible that the report will help determine how many more hikes are in the pipeline.

Economists polled by Reuters estimate the consumer price index to have risen 3.1% in June, following May's 4% increase. The underlying index would have fallen for the third consecutive month from 5.3% to 5%. This is still more than double the Fed's 2% target.

According to economists at ING, the underlying index would have to come in well below forecasts for a rate hike in July to look doubtful.

"We don't think that's going to happen," they noted.

Against this backdrop, at 07:05 GMT on Wednesday, Spain's selective Ibex-35 stock market index was up 23.30 points, or 0.25%, to 9,354.40 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.31%.

The energy company Naturgy opened at the top of the index with a rise of 1.86% after announcing that it has revised its annual dividend floor and targets for 2025.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.82%, BBVA gained 0.40%, Caixabank advanced 0.32%, Sabadell gained 1.08%, Bankinter gained 1.19%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.41%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.47%, Inditex advanced 0.44%, Iberdrola gained 0.18%, Cellnex fell 0.22%, and the oil company Repsol lost 0.08%.

(Reporting by Flora Gómez; additional information by Ankur Banerjee; edited by Tomás Cobos)