Stock exchange in Frankfurt - Dax barely moved within sight of its record
The DAX hardly moved at all at the start of the week within sight of its record high. Today, the leading German index closed 0.04 percent higher at 16,404.76 points. At times, it came within 73 points of its best mark of around 16,529 points from the end of July. In early trading, the MDax rose to its highest level since mid-September. Ultimately, however, the index of medium-sized companies ended trading 0.46 percent lower at 26,370.25 points.
There was no tailwind from the USA, where investors took a break after the brilliant November rally. Fresh economic data was also disappointing, with incoming orders in US industry falling more sharply than expected in October. Hopes of interest rate cuts in the near future had brought the DAX a gain of a good twelve percent since the end of October.
There was a dearth of news from companies at the start of the week, with the exception of Continental. The company is putting parts of its automotive supplier business to the test. From the entry of an investor or a joint venture to a sale or IPO, anything is possible. However, Conti ruled out a complete sale of the business. Continental also cut back on capital expenditure and held out the prospect of higher dividends. The shares fell by 4 percent at times, but the losses were contained to 0.6 percent.
Some of the stocks that have performed poorly this year were in demand: the shares of online food delivery companies Delivery Hero and Hellofresh, for example, rose by 1.4 and 2 percent respectively. The shares of media group ProSiebenSat.1 recorded a gain of 2.4 percent.
Otherwise, share reclassifications were the main drivers. Fraport gained 1 percent and at times climbed to a high for the year. The investment bank Oddo BHF was more optimistic about the airport operator. In contrast, 1&1 lost 4.3 percent and Freenet fell by 2.4 percent after Goldman Sachs downgraded the mobile phone stocks following their recent strong share price performance.
The leading eurozone index EuroStoxx 50 lost 0.08 percent to 4414.95 points. The French Cac 40 and the British FTSE 100 also fell slightly. In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial was down around 0.4 percent at the close of European trading.
The euro weakened noticeably and last traded at 1.0825 US dollars. Economic data published in the morning confirmed the picture of a weakening economy in the eurozone. The European Central Bank set the reference rate at 1.0868 (Friday: 1.0875) dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9201 (0.9195) euros. On the bond market, the current yield fell from 2.44 percent on Friday to 2.38 percent. The bond index Rex rose by 0.23 percent to 125.48 points. The Bund future fell by 0.04 percent to 133.33 points.
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Source: www.stern.de
