IBEX 35 
"(This is) healthy profit-taking after the strong rise so far this year in the main indexes," Bankinter analysts said in a daily report.
The start of the year has been dominated by optimism about the resistance of the major economies to the risk of recession and, especially, about the possibility that the central banks - in particular the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank - will halt the rise in the cost of loans in the face of moderating price increases.
However, the context remains one of great uncertainty, with contradictory messages from central bankers and mixed macroeconomic data.
"Yesterday's PMIs suggested that the Fed and ECB still have work to do," said currency analysts at Monex Europe, who noted, however, that "a recession in the UK could slow down the BoE sooner than markets expect".
The Bank of Canada on Wednesday raised its policy rate to 4.5%, the highest level in 15 years, and became the first major global inflation-fighting central bank to say it is likely to refrain from further hikes for now.
Spain's selective Ibex-35 stock market closed down 9.60 points on Wednesday, down 0.11%, to 8,957.50 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks lost 0.26%.
So far this year, the Spanish selective stock market index has only closed four sessions in negative territory and has accumulated a rebound of 8.85% in January, which means that, if it ends the month at current levels, it will be in January. With five sessions left to close the month, this would represent the best monthly performance since November 2020, when the first positive results in vaccine trials against COVID-19 were announced.
In the banking sector, Santander lost 0.34%, BBVA fell 2.16%, Caixabank dropped 0.98%, Sabadell gained 0.91%, Bankinter dropped 0.72%, and Unicaja Banco lost 0.42%.
Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 1.69%, Inditex advanced 0.84%, Iberdrola gained 0.23%, Cellnex fell 0.68%, and the oil company Repsol lost 1.67%.
(Information by Tomás Cobos)
