Stock exchange in Frankfurt - Dax stable after the holidays
The German stock market was very quiet after Christmas. The Dax ended trading on Wednesday with a gain of 0.21% and closed at 16,742.07 points. The leading index thus remained within touching distance of the record high of just over 17,000 points reached almost two weeks ago.
As is often the case shortly before the end of the year, most market players stayed away from the action. This also manifested itself in very low trading volumes: A total of around 1.7 billion euros was traded in the 40 Dax stocks on the Xetra trading system - more than twice as much on normal trading days.
The MDax of medium-sized companies rose by 0.79% to 27,157.63 points in the middle of the week, outperforming the Dax.
Dax rose sharply in 2023
After a weak stock market year in 2022, the year that is now coming to an end is once again a success for investors. The Dax 2023 has risen by a good 20 percent so far. The index recorded the majority of this annual gain between the end of October and mid-December. Falling inflation and hopes that key interest rates would soon fall were the driving forces. In contrast, investors had to cope with a loss of more than twelve percent in the previous year.
Price-moving impulses were rare today, Wednesday. In the Dax, Bayer shares rose by 2.3 percent. After a series of defeats, the agrochemical and pharmaceutical company won a glyphosate lawsuit in the USA. According to one trader, this is a "small ray of hope, but the story is far from over".
Siemens Energy was the top performer in the leading index, gaining 5.4 percent. However, the annual loss still amounts to almost a third. Like other shares in the alternative energy sector, the shares benefited from major orders for Vestas. The Danish manufacturer of wind turbines received orders from the USA and Australia with a combined volume of around 1.2 gigawatts of capacity. This brightened the mood in the industry somewhat. The shares of Vestas competitor Nordex gained 4 percent in the MDax.
Hapag-Lloyd lost a good 8 percent after the share price had recovered by around 40 percent since mid-December. Rising freight rates due to the attacks by Huthi rebels in the Red Sea had led to share price gains, but now investors were taking profits. Competitor A.P. Moller-Maersk announced that ships would soon be sailing through the Red Sea again.
The leading European index EuroStoxx closed 0.15 percent higher at 4528.38 points. The French Cac 40 virtually stood still, while the British FTSE 100 closed slightly firmer. In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial benchmark index was moderately higher at the close of European trading.
Euro climbs to 1.1117 US dollars
The euro continued its rally against the US dollar and rose to its highest level since the end of July. It last traded at 1.1117 US dollars. The European Central Bank had previously set the reference rate at 1.1065 (Friday: 1.1023) US dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9037 (0.9071) euros.
On the bond market, the current yield fell from 1.99 percent on Friday to 1.96 percent. The bond index Rex rose by 0.03 percent to 128.71 points.
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- Hapag-Lloyd, a leading German container shipping company, experienced a significant loss of 8% in its shares, following a period of recovery triggered by rising freight rates in the Red Sea.
- In the context of the quiet German stock market post-Christmas, shares of Bayer, a renowned German pharmaceutical and agrochemical company, saw a 2.3% increase due to a successful glyphosate lawsuit victory in the USA.
- Traders in Frankfurt's stock exchange are closely monitoring the performance of Siemens Energy, the top performer in the DAX with a 5.4% gain, despite an annual loss of almost a third.
- The German stock market, represented by the Dax, had a successful 2023, with the index recording a 20% rise following defeats in the previous year.
- Reflecting on the Frankfurt-based stock exchange's performance, it is worth considering Germany's robust economic relationship with countries like the USA, given the impact of US court decisions on German companies' stocks.
- During the Christmas holidays, the trading volume on Xetra's Frankfurt exchange dropped significantly, with only around 1.7 billion euros traded in the 40 Dax stocks, much less than on typical trading days.
Source: www.stern.de
