The Spanish stock index IBEX 35 showed a slight advance at the opening of Wednesday's trading session, in a scenario of sluggishness as the market awaits important political and macroeconomic news in the coming days.

"Everything points to a dull session, a transition until the most relevant events in the coming days: the first presidential debate in the US (Thursday), inflation in some European countries and, above all, the PCE Consumption Deflator in the US (Friday) and the first round of the French elections (Sunday)," said Bankinter in a daily report.

"Several ECB members are speaking, but they are unlikely to deviate from the mantra of meeting-by-meeting data dependence, and more so in an environment of political uncertainty in some European countries," it added.

Added to these issues were technical reasons, as the second-quarter portfolio close approaches, which could mean some moderation in trading.

During the day, only U.S. housing market indicators (1200 and 1400 GMT) and EIA data on oil and fuel stocks (1430 GMT) remain to be released, in a context of rising crude oil prices.

Before the opening, the GfK consumer confidence indicator for Germany was released, which showed an unexpected decline, showing the fragility of the recovery in the German economy.

In this scenario, at 0715 GMT on Wednesday, the Spanish selective stock market index IBEX 35 was up 29.00 points, or 0.26%, to 11,147.90 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks advanced by 0.46%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.22%, BBVA gained 0.47%, Caixabank advanced 0.08%, Sabadell gained 0.06%, Bankinter dropped 0.16%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.55%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.25%, Inditex advanced 0.38%, Iberdrola dropped 0.20%, Cellnex gained 1.09%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.30%.

(Information by Tomás Cobos; edited by Benjamín Mejías Valencia)