The prospects of a lower interest rate horizon set the IBEX 35 on course for its third consecutive weekly rise, against a backdrop of growing confidence about the next steps of the major central banks.

The Federal Reserve's (Fed) rate cut projections for this year were maintained on Wednesday, and an unexpected cut in the cost of debt in Switzerland on Thursday, which encouraged hopes of similar steps by the ECB or the Bank of England (BoE).

The BoE meeting also showed a growing inclination towards easing, despite ending with no change in monetary policy, as expected.

This news contributed to the growing feeling in the financial markets that, regardless of the timing or pace, the path to a near future with cheaper money seems clear. This context has allowed the IBEX to accumulate a rise of 8.84% in the time elapsed in March, which would represent its highest monthly revaluation since November.

Investors are now shifting their attention to the IFO business survey in Germany which, according to Renta 4, "could continue to improve in March, given the expectation of rate cuts from June onwards", following PMI surveys that were better than expected in the case of the composite indicator.

The PMI report also included an easing of the price components, "which increases the probability of a first rate cut in June," said Renta 4.

According to the interest rate futures in LSEG's IRPR tool--the odds of a rate cut in June stand at just over 71%.

At 0805 GMT on Friday, Spain's selective IBEX 35 stock market index was up 18.00 points, or 0.17%, to 10,885.50 points, its highest level since June 2017, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks retreated 0.25%.

For the week as a whole, the Ibex-35 shows a rise of 2.71%, after also rising more than 2% in the previous two weeks.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.15%, BBVA gained 0.46%, Caixabank advanced 0.36%, Sabadell gained 0.17%, Bankinter gained 0.33%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.19%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.83%, Inditex lost 0.24%, Iberdrola gained 0.58%, Cellnex fell 0.15%, and the oil company Repsol lost 0.39%.

The stock that rose the most on the selective market was the plasma derivatives group Grifols, which advanced 6.44% after completing an investigation by the CNMV, which saw no need to restate the group's accounts despite pointing out "deficiencies" in the information published.

(Information by Tomás Cobos)