The Spanish stock index Ibex-35 touched its highest levels in six years and nine months at the open on Thursday after receiving with relief the outcome of the U.S. central bank meeting, which did not derail hopes about the path of rate cuts this year.

Contrary to some market fears, the update of Federal Reserve (Fed) members' projections brought no change to the horizon of at least three borrowing cost cuts this year, so the market increased its bets on a first easing move in June.

However, equity observers warned against excessive optimism, noting that the message from the bank led by Jerome Powell also showed risks of more monetary tightening than investors wanted.

"(...) it is striking that 9 of the 19 members believe that there could be less than 3 cuts this year, which points to the fact that it is quite likely that the Fed will end up cutting less than targeted, especially with risks on growth and inflation on the upside," said the brokerage house Renta 4.

In this sense, Renta 4 highlights that the Fed raised growth and inflation forecasts, in addition to pointing to the strength of employment, factors that could limit the impulses of easing financing conditions.

In the short term, however, markets interpreted the Fed's statement positively, contributing to a fall in government bond yields and a decline in the dollar.

Market bets for the Fed currently put the odds of a first rate cut in June at 73.4%, down from less than 60% before the meeting, according to interest rate futures on LSEG's IRPR tool.

Elsewhere, financial markets will shift attention on Thursday to the Bank of England meeting, as well as PMI business surveys.

Analysts polled by Reuters believe that the British central bank will try to lower expectations for rate cuts, pending clearer signs of moderation in prices.

That being the case, at 0805 GMT on Thursday, Spain's selective Ibex-35 stock market index was posting its third consecutive advance and was up 100.40 points, or 0.93%, to 10,852.90 points, its highest level since June 13, 2017, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.83%.

In the banking sector, Santander was up 0.81%, BBVA was up 1.33%, Caixabank advanced 0.08%, Sabadell gained 0.87%, Bankinter was off 0.09% and Unicaja Banco was up 1.03%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.66%, Inditex advanced 1.28%, Cellnex gained 1.17%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.68%.

Iberdrola rebounded by 1.13%, after making the first announcements of its investor day, where it indicated that it plans to invest 41,000 million euros (44,830 million dollars) over the next three years, mostly in electricity networks.

(Information by Tomás Cobos)