The Spanish stock index IBEX 35 opened Thursday with a slight rise and was heading for its sixth day of gains and to storm the 12,000-point level, despite a context of concern about the fall of the government in France and market speculation about the expectations of rate cuts in the United States.

Opposition MPs toppled France's government on Wednesday, plunging the European Union's second-largest economic power into a political crisis that threatens its ability to legislate and rein in its huge budget deficit.

On the monetary front, doubts persisted about the possibility of further cuts in the cost of debt in the United States, after Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell made balanced comments on Wednesday.

"The most important thing in the last 24h is that Powell expressed himself 'hawkish'/hard at an event in the NYT by stating that the US economy is stronger now than when the Fed started rate cuts (Sept.), but inflation somewhat higher... so 'the good news is that we can be somewhat more cautious (lowering rates) in search of neutral (on rates).' Come on, clearly 'hawkish'," Bankinter analysts said on their Telegram channel.

In any case, caution is likely to be maintained until Friday, when the full November U.S. job creation report for November will be released, which will provide further clues on the Fed's interest rate outlook.

Strong numbers in Friday's data could encourage the Fed to hold rates or at least put upcoming decisions on hold, pending further action to be imposed from January by new U.S. President Donald Trump.

Otherwise, the bitcoin reached a new milestone, surpassing $100,000 for the first time on Thursday, at a time when investors are betting on a favorable US administration that will consolidate the place of cryptocurrencies in the financial markets.

Against this backdrop, at 0805 GMT on Thursday, Spain's selective IBEX 35 stock market index was up 43.50 points, or 0.36%, to 11,975.10 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks advanced 0.07%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.67%, BBVA gained 0.41%, Caixabank advanced 0.65%, Sabadell gained 0.24%, Bankinter gained 0.58%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.63%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.35%, Inditex advanced 0.18%, Iberdrola gained 0.30%, Cellnex gained 0.72%, and the oil company Repsol rose 0.22%.

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