The Spanish stock index IBEX 35 opened Friday with a negative trend, after Israeli attacks on Iran that could intensify the conflict in the Middle East, although the possibility that it was a limited offensive cushioned the decline in equities.

Israel launched an attack on Iranian soil on Friday and Tehran activated air defenses, in a new episode of retaliation between the two archenemies that keeps the world on edge, with the danger of Israel's war against Gaza spreading to more countries in the troubled region.

In the absence of further details on the scope of the Israeli offensive and Iran's possible reaction, the financial markets opted to seek refuge assets - such as the yen, the Swiss franc, gold and public debt - and oil prices rose considerably, due to fears that the supply of crude oil might be interrupted.

However, the extent of the market movements was partly mitigated by the news that, for the time being, the Israeli attack was limited -- some observers described it as "symbolic" -- and that the Iranian authorities denied that missiles had been launched against their country. A senior Iranian official indicated that there are no plans for immediate retaliation against Israel for the "incident", which he said was "more of an infiltration than an attack".

"The Israeli retaliation, leaving aside its geostrategic interpretation, will affect very little and will serve (positively) as a vaccine for the market, which will realize that the evolution of geostrategy allows it to develop almost normally as long as it does not escalate disproportionately. And that is good for the coming weeks and even the summer," Bankinter analysts said in a daily report.

The geopolitical crossroads and its upward effect on fuel prices have fueled in recent days the fear of a resurgence of inflation, the other front of concern for the financial markets, which have seen how the horizon of the desired interest rate cuts in the United States has progressively receded.

More leaders of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) repeated on Thursday the mantra that there is no urgency to lower interest rates until well into the year, in view of the strength of the U.S. economy and the stagnation in the process of lowering inflation.

On Friday there will be no macroeconomic data to be considered by investors, who are preparing for a first avalanche of corporate results next week, with figures from Iberdrola, Sabadell, Mapfre and Repsol, among others.

After two upward sessions in which the markets were betting on a de-escalation, at 07:10 GMT on Friday, the selective Spanish stock market index IBEX 35 fell 93.20 points, or 0.87%, to 10,671.80 points, while the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks fell 0.60%.

For the week as a whole, the IBEX 35 showed a decline of 0.07%, in a context of high volatility on the stock markets.

The banking sector led the falls: Santander lost 1.17%, BBVA fell 2.11%, Caixabank dropped 0.85%, Sabadell fell 1.36%, Bankinter lost 0.14% and Unicaja Banco lost 0.87%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica fell 0.08%, Inditex dropped 1.23%, Iberdrola gained 0.09%, Cellnex fell 0.52%, and the oil company Repsol lost 0.43%.

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