On the great day of expiration, the so-called Witches’ Sabbath, the Dax cannot hold its winnings. At the close of trading on Friday, the German benchmark index was one percent in the red at 15,490 points, after having gained up to 0.8 percent at times. Stock marketers saw the big expiry date with expiring futures contracts on stocks and indices on the futures exchanges as the reason. In doing so, investors often try to move prices in a direction that is favorable to them. Therefore, there can be strong price fluctuations even without news. In addition, it is the last trading day for the Dax with 30 index members. As of Monday, the first German stock exchange league will include 40 stocks.
At the top of the DAX, the shares of the automotive supplier Continental recovered by 1.1 percent, a little way from their recent price dip after the spin-off of the drive technology specialist Vitesco. After a rather mixed stock market start on Thursday, its papers advanced by 5.1 percent.
Biotest shares set off a fireworks display. The Hessian drug manufacturer is sold to the Spanish competitor Grifols. The Chinese majority shareholder Creat has already sold its stake of almost 90 percent of the ordinary shares to Grifols for 773 million euros. Grifols made a purchase offer of 43 euros per common share and 37 euros per preferred share to the other shareholders. Biotest ordinary shares gained 24.8 percent to 43.80 euros, the preference shares were quoted 10.4 percent higher at 39.20 euros. After a positive analyst comment, the shares of the car rental company Sixt jumped to the top of the S-Dax with a plus of 5.0 percent.
The hope of easing the corona restrictions in Great Britain for international travel made shares in the travel sector desirable. The European industry index rose by 1.2 percent. In this country, the papers of Lufthansa as the best M-Dax value rose 2.6 percent, the shares of the airport operator Fraport recorded a premium of 1.8 percent. The titles of the world’s largest travel company Tui posted an increase of 6.2 percent.
US investors took no risk ahead of the Fed’s interest rate meeting next week. Of the Dow Jones closed 0.5 percent in the red at 34,585 points.