Spain's main stock market index closed Thursday at nearly seven-month highs, extending for the fourth day the bullish streak with which it has started 2023, against a global backdrop of cautious reaction to the Fed minutes and optimism over China's reopening.

Despite the Fed's admonition against excessive optimism in financial markets on Wednesday, when its minutes showed that the easing of its rate hikes does not imply a lowering of its guard against inflation, rises in the preponderant banking sector (which benefits from potential sharp rate hikes) kept the Ibex-35 bullish.

Santander rose 0.37%, BBVA gained 0.89%, Caixabank advanced 0.70%, Sabadell gained 1.49%, and Bankinter gained 0.90%.

Added to this was the boost from China's reopening to the world after two years of strict restrictions due to COVID-19, encouraging optimism about a decisive boost to the global economy.

"China's reopening has a big impact (...) around the world," said Joanne Goh of DBS Bank in Singapore, as it not only stimulates tourism and consumption, but may alleviate some of the supply chain issues seen during 2022.

"There will be setbacks along the way (...) We give the process six months to adapt. But we don't think it will be reversible."

Thus, the Spanish selective stock market Ibex-35 closed Thursday with a rise of 47.8 points, up 0.56%, to 8,607.60 points, its highest level since the close on June 9.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks lost 0.11%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.17%, Inditex advanced 0.65%, Iberdrola dropped 0.50%, Cellnex gained 2.02%, and the oil company Repsol rose 2.14%.

(Information by Darío Fernández; additional information by Marc Jones and Koh Gui Qing).