Surprisingly positive company figures support the Dax, which, however, returns part of its initial gains. Bad news in the glyphosate dispute send Bayer shares plummeting.
Supported by positive company balance sheets, Europe’s stock exchanges continued on their recovery course in the middle of the week. While the Euro-Stoxx-50 rose by 2.4 percent to 3642 points on Wednesday, Bayer’s price slide slowed it down dax-Rise down a bit. The leading German index nevertheless closed 2.2 percent higher at 13,829 points. Declining corona numbers in Shanghai had eased the economic concerns of investors in Asia and helped the stock markets there to make gains. Jürgen Molnar, capital market strategist at Robo-Markets, said that the stock exchanges were also given stability during the balance sheet season. “Almost 70 percent of the companies included in the leading German index surprised the analysts positively with their figures for the first quarter.” According to the analysts at Helaba, however, the Ukraine war and the sanctions against Russia, high inflation and rising interest rates as well as the supply chain problem are making the stock market environment persistently difficult.
A setback in the glyphosate dispute triggered a price slide of 6.2 percent in Bayer shares for the individual values in the Dax. The agri-pharmaceutical company has less hope of pursuing its appeal in the lawsuit over alleged cancer risks of its glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup in the US Supreme Court, following a recommendation from the attorney general’s office. “With that, the scenario that would end all Roundup lawsuits is probably off the table,” said one trader. On the other hand, positively received quarterly figures from Continental gave the car supplier’s shares a price increase of 3.6 percent. However, the shares also followed the Europe-wide strength of the sector. The shares of Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and BMW gained up to 5.3 percent in value. There were also figures from Eon, here the papers turned 3.8 percent into the plus after a weak start.
In the M-Dax, Thyssenkrupp delighted investors with quarterly results that exceeded expectations and an increase in annual targets. The share price of the steel group shot up by 11.2 percent.
Investors on Wall Street were in good spirits. The leading US index Dow Jones was 0.9 percent higher in mid-trading.