The DAX has existed for over 30 years – time and time again the price has set new records or gone downhill. Back calculations also give price values for the time before the actual creation of the DAX. What were the DAX’s five best years?
• Some of the best DAX years were in the middle of a recession
• Shortly before the Asian crisis, the DAX once again experienced record values
• Re-opening of the stock exchange after World War II causes huge price increases
1975: High unemployment and still a good DAX year
As of April 2023, 1975 was the fifth best DAX year ever since 1959. The year began in January with the highest unemployment rate since 1960, as the Tagesschau reports in an annual review: 1,154,300 people were registered as unemployed. The news portal also writes: “The number of bankruptcies is reaching record levels, and the construction industry is particularly affected.” According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, there was also an oil crisis, which drove up energy prices and restricted the purchasing power of Germans. Nevertheless, the large companies have apparently done well in the back calculation despite the economic slack: while the DAX was at 401.79 points at the beginning of the year, it rose by 40.19 percent to 563.25 points by the end of December, the high for the year was even 566, 20 points.
1993: Breaks the 2,000 point mark
The fourth-best DAX year since 1959 also took place during a recession – Focus Online describes the year 1993 as follows: “The hangover follows the intoxication.” What is meant is that the German reunification not only brought a lot of joy, but also a slacking of the “economic resilience of the republic”. The news portal reports that the economy shrank by 1.1 percent in 1993.
But the DAX companies don’t seem to have been impressed by this either: the price started at 1,545.05 points, but by the end of the year it had risen by a full 46.71 percent to an annual high of 2,266.68 points and thus exceeded the 2,000 point mark .
1997: Joy in the Tiger States
Four years later, the DAX rose even more – and that despite the fact that, according to the FAZ, the first harbingers of the Asian crisis had already arrived in Germany in the form of reports about liquidity problems in the tiger economies. According to boerse.de, however, these were not recognized at first, so that the DAX companies were once again able to really benefit from the upswing in Southeast Asia in 1997: In January, the DAX started at 2,888.69 points and by the end of the year it was around 47.11 percent to 4,249.69 points. The high for the year was 4,438.93 points, slightly higher than the final level.
1967: “Act to Promote the Stability and Growth of the Economy”
1967 was the second best year in the history of the DAX since 1959: According to media reports and a publication by the University of Munich from 1992, the “Act to Promote Stability and Economic Growth” was passed that year. Among other things, this was obviously intended to help get broader sections of the population enthusiastic about stock trading in order to compensate for a slight recession after the “economic miracle years”. In addition, the Bundesbank raised interest rates. All of this caused the DAX to rise enormously: while it started at 333.36 points, it rose by 50.95 percent over the course of the year and ended the year at 503.22 points.
1985: Global economic recovery in the mid-1980s
The best DAX year since 1959 was 1985. According to media reports, a global economic recovery from the global economic crisis had already set in in 1984, so that German exports to the USA rose by almost 50 percent within a year and the gross national product also grew significantly . These developments apparently also affected the DAX companies: While the price started at 820.91 points at the beginning of the year, it rose by a full 66.43 percent to 1,366.23 points by the end of the year. However, this upturn did not last long: just two years (1987) later, the third worst year in the history of the DAX was recorded.
In fact, according to the portal boersennews.de, there were three better DAX years – before 1959: In the years 1949 (152.13 percent), 1951 (115.41 percent) and 1954 (82.59 percent) the DAX was according to back calculations increased by more than 100 and 80 percent respectively. The publication by the University of Munich states that these developments resulted from the reestablishment of the stock exchange after the Second World War and the passing of new finance laws.
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