FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) – Greater interest rate concerns cost the Dax (DAX 40) part of its weekly profit on Friday. The leading German index ended trading at 15,482.00 points, down 0.33 percent. The MDAX for medium-sized companies fell by 0.59 percent to 28,857.81 points.
The Dax did not come close to its annual high of 15,658 points reached in February this week with a peak of 15,634 points. The weekly plus decreased to 1.1 percent with Friday’s result.
“The Dax has not yet managed to close the week above 15,500 points this year. This illustrates the strong resistance zone in this area,” wrote analyst Salah Bouhmidi from broker IG.
The fear of high interest rates is driving investors more after the recent robust US economic data – and capping the courses. The data gave no signals to the US Federal Reserve that it would have to change its rate hike course to combat inflation. The European Central Bank also intends to raise interest rates further. Recently, board member Isabel Schnabel warned that financial markets could underestimate the determination of the ECB in the fight against high inflation.
On the company side, the business figures of Allianz and Mercedes-Benz (Mercedes-Benz Group (ex-Daimler)) were in focus before the weekend. The insurer reported record operating profit for 2022, beating analysts’ expectations. Nevertheless, the shares lost 1.9 percent as one of the biggest losers in the Dax. A stockbroker spoke of the usual solid figures – “but nothing more”. The day before, analyst Michael Huttner from the private bank Berenberg gave investors hope for another major share buyback. But this was not fulfilled.
At the Stuttgart carmaker, the figures for 2022 and the outlook for 2023, as well as the announcement of a billion-dollar share buyback program, caused a price increase of 2.8 percent. The titles thus led the list of winners in the leading index.
Negative analyst statements weighed on Deutsche Post and GEA. The logistics group’s shares fell 1.3 percent after the US bank JPMorgan downgraded them. Barclays analyst Lars Brorson sees the margin story at risk for plant manufacturer Gea. Gea lost 1.8 percent in the MDax.
Shares in the semiconductor company Elmos (Elmos Semiconductor) continued their record rally, helped by a fresh buy recommendation from Hauck Aufhäuser Investment Banking. At the end of trading, they were at the top of the SDAX small-cap index, 6.9 percent higher.
The EuroStoxx 50 (EURO STOXX 50) lost 0.52 percent to 4274.92 points over the weekend. The French CAC 40 also dropped a bit. London’s FTSE 100 stayed just above the 8000 point mark, down just a bit. In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial (Dow Jones 30 Industrial) was down 0.3 percent at the European close. The technology-heavy NASDAQ 100 fell even more sharply by 1.5 percent on interest rate concerns.
On Friday, the euro had reached its lowest level in a little over a month at 1.0613 US dollars, but then recovered again. Most recently, the common currency was quoted at $ 1.0674. The ECB had set the reference rate at 1.0625 (Thursday: 1.0700) dollars, the dollar cost 0.9412 (0.9346) euros.
On the bond market, the current yield rose from 2.47 percent on the previous day to 2.54 percent. The Rex bond index (REX overall price index) fell by 0.31 percent to 124.66 points. After the end of Xetra, the Bund future gained 0.36 percent to 135.03 points./ajx/he
— By Achim Jüngling, dpa-AFX —