The Spanish stock index IBEX 35 opened Friday slightly higher and reached 11,800 points, still with the hangover of the big rate cut by the Federal Reserve (Fed) and with some voices pointing to an acceleration of the easing cycle by the European Central Bank.

After a couple of weeks dominated by speculation about the size of the Fed's cut, the IBEX received positively the US central bank's decision to relax borrowing costs by 50 basis points (bp), although moderation in the markets seemed to indicate that the measure was partly discounted.

The index has risen almost 400 points since the beginning of the month, accumulating a monthly gain of more than 3%, having already risen by 3% in August.

Although at the beginning of the week Bankinter analysts pointed out that a 50 bp cut could be detrimental - as it could be a sign of the weakness of the US economy - they now point out that the markets have turned the tables, reinterpreting the cut in a positive way.

"The version has taken hold that there is nothing wrong with the economic cycle, that the Fed is confident that inflation will recede, that it is refocusing on GDP/employment (especially on protecting jobs, for whatever it's worth) and that it may cut rates somewhat more than expected, like 25/50bp lower than previously thought," they note on their Telegram channel.

With no major macroeconomic data on Friday, investors will be watching ECB President Christine Lagarde's remarks at 1500GMT for clues on the ECB's rate-cutting schedule.

Italy's central bank governor, Fabio Panetta, said on Thursday that the easing cycle could accelerate in the coming months, due to the weak eurozone economy and the Fed's recent big cut.

In the same vein, ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos on Friday did not rule out the possibility of an interest rate cut in October.

In fact, according to LSEG's IRPR tool, almost 70% of traders expect the eurozone central bank to cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point after the October 17 meeting.

At 07:07 GMT on Friday, Spain's IBEX 35 was up 22.20 points, or 0.19%, to 11,800.30 points, on track for a weekly gain of 2.25%.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was down 0.32%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.22%, BBVA gained 0.43%, Caixabank advanced 0.88%, Sabadell gained 0.36%, Bankinter gained 0.55%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.42%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.39%, Inditex advanced 0.08%, Iberdrola gained 0.37%, Cellnex gained 0.22%, and the oil company Repsol lost 0.59%.

(Information by Javi West Larrañaga; edited by Tomás Cobos)