Spain's Ibex-35 stock index took profits at the open on Wednesday after five days of gains, as investors weigh the risks that the European Central Bank and the Bank of England may yet have to tighten borrowing costs to contain price rises.

While the U.S. Federal Reserve appears on track for a 25 basis point interest rate hike that could be the last in the current tightening cycle, its European counterparts appear to still have work to do.

On Wednesday it emerged that the UK now has the highest consumer price inflation rate in Western Europe, after it rose in March from 10.4% year-on-year in February to 10.1%, up from a forecast 9.8%, which will not bring too much relief to the UK central bank.

The final March CPI for the eurozone will also be released later this morning, which could stand at 6.9% y-o-y, with core inflation higher at 7.5%.

These are inflation rates, according to the Spanish securities firm Renta 4, "uncomfortably high for the ECB".

"All this points to the fact that we are likely to be facing structurally higher inflation than in the past. The market, having achieved a certain tranquility in the financial sphere, is once again raising its expectations for the arrival of (deposit) rates up to 3.75%," they added.

Otherwise, the focus will remain on the corporate earnings season, with figures from Morgan Stanley, IBM, Tesla and Alcoa in the United States, according to Renta 4.

Against this backdrop, at 07:05 GMT on Wednesday, the selective Spanish stock market index Ibex-35 was down 3.30 points, or 0.04%, to 9,418.60 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was down 0.23%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.21%, BBVA fell 0.15%, Caixabank advanced 0.36%, Sabadell gained 0.89%, Bankinter gained 0.56%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.10%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.42%, Inditex remained almost flat, Iberdrola gained 0.09%, Cellnex fell 0.55%, and the oil company Repsol lost 1.53%.

Colonial fell by more than 3%, following a cut in the target price assigned by Citigroup, from 4.9 to 3.5 euros.

The day before, its competitor Realia announced a significant drop in its first quarter revenues.

(Information by Tomás Cobos; edited by Darío Fernández)