Concerns about the negative consequences of persistently high inflation are sapping Europe’s stock markets. Of the dax fell 1.3 percent to 14,008 points on Wednesday after rising 1.5 percent on Tuesday. In addition to the Ukraine war, the second long-running issue of inflation was again more in the focus of stockbrokers. In the UK, consumer prices rose 9 percent in April, the fastest since 1982. Inflation in the euro zone also remains very high. In April, consumer prices rose by 7.4 percent compared to the same month last year. This fueled interest rate speculation for the eurozone. Higher interest rates favor fixed income securities like bonds over stocks. This tends to lead to discounts on the stock market.
On the company side, the focus was on takeovers and business figures. The fact that Siemens Energy confirmed considerations about a complete takeover of the Spanish wind power subsidiary Siemens Gamesa caused the shares of the energy technology group to rise by 1.3 percent. Other stocks from the renewable energy sector also benefited from this: the titles of Siemens Gamesa competitor Nordex gained 1.3 percent in the S-Dax and those of wind farm operator Encavis 3.3 percent. Papers from Tui fell by 12.6 percent. The tourism group collected 425 million euros in fresh capital from investors in order to repay state aid.
As the Dax leader, the RWE share gained 3.2 percent. Imagination for long-term wind power targets on the high seas and a billion-euro EU plan for independence from Russian energy were seen as drivers. At Commerzbank, the takeover topic provided tailwind. The shares gained a good three percent after the Financial Times had reported that the Italian Unicredit had considered buying the competitor and merging it with the German subsidiary Hypo Vereinsbank before the outbreak of the Ukraine war. In contrast, Dermapharm titles lost 13.4 percent according to figures.
Fearing more drastic interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, investors fled the US stock exchanges. Of the Dow Jones was down three percent two hours before the end of trading, the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped four percent.