Fearing a setback for the economy due to sharply rising interest rates and an imminent energy crisis, investors only touched European stocks with keen fingers. The unchecked inflation in the euro zone, which reached a record high of 9.1 percent year-on-year in August, gave stock market traders a headache. The European Central Bank (ECB) could therefore be forced to raise interest rates sharply in the coming week despite the looming energy crisis. Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel is also calling for a strong interest rate move by the ECB. “Drought, the weak euro and the gas levy in Germany are keeping inflation concerns high,” said economist Alexander Krüger from the private bank Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe. Of the dax slipped into the red shortly after the inflation data was released on Wednesday, closing one percent lower at 12,835 points.
In the case of the individual values in the Dax, the titles of Volkswagen and the group holding company Porsche SE lost 2.6 and 3.1 percent in value, respectively. Both shares had recently benefited from the idea of an IPO for the sports car manufacturer Porsche AG. Airbus was more affected by the news with a discount of 2.7 percent, while SAP rose by 0.4 percent. A high-ranking change of manager caused a sensation among the two Dax heavyweights: Chief Financial Officer Dominik Asam will leave the aircraft manufacturer at the beginning of March next year and switch to the software group in the same role. The weakest value in the M-Dax were the papers from Befesa with a discount of 6.5 percent. Analysts at Citigroup lowered the price target for the metal recycler. As a result of the half-year results, the estimates for the annual margin have been withdrawn, it said.
At the European level, falling oil prices pushed shares in oil companies Shell and BP down 0.8 and 1.7 percent, respectively. Uni-Credit shares rose by 4.5 percent. The major Italian bank has received the green light from the ECB to resume its share buyback program.
Wall Street was weaker. The leading index Dow Jones closed 0.9 percent down at 31,510 points.