FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) – The Dax did not venture any further near its record high on Tuesday. After a friendly start, the leading index was down 0.12 percent at 16,884.09 points around midday. However, he remained close to his record of just over 17,000 points. The MDax was down 0.20 percent at 25,537.85 points. The Eurozone leading index EuroStoxx, on the other hand, rose by 0.1 percent.
The leading index is currently having a hard time setting new records, as hopes of rapid reductions in key interest rates were recently dampened in view of strong economic data from the USA. On Friday, the Dax had only exceeded the previous high from December by one point, but by then there was already a lack of investors willing to buy.
“The interest rate fantasy on both sides of the Atlantic has been dampened in the last few days, not only because central bankers have remained hesitant overall, but important data publications have not given any new fuel to expectations of interest rate cuts,” said the experts at Landesbank Helaba this morning.
Recently, however, there have been an increasing number of voices highlighting the current good economic situation. The Helaba experts also turned their attention to order figures from industry in Germany, which were published in the morning. In December, this received 8.9 percent more orders month-on-month, while analysts on average had expected a slight decline.
Commerzbank shares were leading the DAX at midday, rising by 2.4 percent and thus setting themselves apart from the European industry environment. SAP was also a winner with one percent. The software company’s titles continued their record run. The same applied to Beiersdorf, although the initial profits shrank here. The consumer goods company’s focus was on a significantly increased dividend and share buybacks.
In contrast, Infineon shares fell by three percent. The chip company cannot escape the weak semiconductor environment and disappointed investors by lowering its forecast for the current financial year. A series of increasingly bad news from the international semiconductor sector continued.
The second largest DAX loser was RWE with a loss of 2.5 percent. As a result of an analyst downgrade, the shares continued their rapid downward trend this year. They are currently at the bottom of the Dax in 2024 with losses of almost a fifth. The investment house Stifel canceled its previous buy recommendation. Coal still makes up more than 20 percent of RWE’s portfolio, which is keeping new investors away, it said.
With increases of just over one percent each, the shares of Aurubis and Bechtle were winners in the MDax according to the results presented by the two companies.
LEG Immobilien, on the other hand, suffered a loss of 2.3 percent in the MDax because Warburg Research abandoned its previous buy recommendation after the increase in the past few months. The opposite happened with SDax member Salzgitter: The private bank Metzler now advises buying. The steelmaker’s stocks gained two percent.
The shareholders of Morphosys were very happy: the day before, takeover rumors had already boosted the share price and these have now come true, as the pharmaceutical company Novartis is offering 68 euros per Morphosys share. In addition to the previous day’s increase of 36 percent, there was another increase of more than 14 percent. This brought the price closer to the offered price./tih/jha/
— By Timo Hausdorf, dpa-AFX —