Feb 23 (Reuters) - Spain's Ibex-35 stock index was slightly lower at the open on Friday but was aiming to close the week with its biggest weekly gain since mid-November, as signs of strength in the economy countered the moderation of hopes of rate cuts.

The main stock markets benefited from the fever for technology companies after Nvidia's good results, which had a moderate impact on the Ibex-35 due to the absence of pure technology companies, and in the Spanish market the quarterly figures of Telefónica and Repsol were well received on Thursday.

The corporate news seemed to reinforce the markets' confidence in the apparent good progress of the economy, despite new indications that the major central banks are in no hurry to lower interest rates.

Christine Lagarde rejected any possibility of interest rate cuts at the end of January, according to the minutes of the ECB's latest monetary policy meeting released on Thursday. This message was in complete sync with comments from Christopher Waller, an influential Federal Reserve governor, who said on Thursday that we would have to wait at least a couple more months to see inflation moderate.

In this regard, investors will get further clues on Friday about the direction of monetary policies with Germany's February IFO business confidence report and an ECB survey of inflation expectations among consumers.

At 08:58 GMT on Friday, Spain's selective Ibex-35 stock market index was down 22.60 points, or 0.22%, to 10,116.30 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks was up 0.10%.

In the banking sector, Santander rose 0.16%, BBVA gained 0.64%, Caixabank advanced 0.66%, Sabadell gained 0.17%, Bankinter dropped 0.45%, and Unicaja Banco rose 0.10%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.21%, Inditex advanced 0.27%, Iberdrola dropped 1.07%, and Cellnex fell 0.76%.

The petrochemical company Repsol stood out, which rose 1.18% despite having risen 5.5% the day before after JP Morgan's improved valuation.

The airport operator Aena also gained 1.08% after Citi raised its recommendation from "neutral" to "buy".

Solaria was the most penalized stock of the Ibex-35 with a 2.95% reduction. On Friday, Morgan Stanley began coverage of the stock with a recommendation of "equal weighting" and a digital media highlighted the stock as one of the most attacked in Spain by short positions, which according to the records of the CNMV amounted to 3.8% of the capital.

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