After the European Central Bank (ECB) raised interest rates, which failed as expected, the Dax was stable and closed at just over 13,200 points. The positive stock market mood on New York’s Wall Street also had a supportive effect on Thursday.
The leading German index ended the day up 0.12 percent to 13,211.23 points. The MDax for medium-sized stocks, on the other hand, fell by 1.12 percent to 23,940.86 points. “A US economy that continues to run smoothly, a consistently acting ECB and an overall market that seems immune to bad company numbers were the ingredients for the continued rally,” commented market analyst Konstantin Oldenburger from CMC Markets.
The ECB is bracing itself against the record inflation in the euro area with another strong interest rate hike of 0.75 percentage points. The key interest rate at which commercial banks can borrow fresh money from the central bank has risen to 2.0 percent. In this respect, there were no negative surprises, which provided relief on the stock market.
The EuroStoxx 50, the leading index in the euro zone, closed 0.02 percent lower at 3604.51 points. Conversely, moderate losses were recorded in Paris and modest gains in London. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial rose 1.3 percent at the close in Europe.
On the company side, numerous quarterly reports were in view. Infineon shares lost 3.5 percent at the end of the Dax. They got sucked into the competitor STMicroelectronics, whose shares on the Euronext stock exchange collapsed. According to the US bank JPMorgan, STMicro’s future margin development raises questions.
Beiersdorf shares also fell by 3.5 percent. Although the consumer goods group has become more optimistic thanks to continued robust business development and has raised its sales forecast, the share price has already anticipated a lot. Since the beginning of the year, it has risen by around seven percent, while the overall market has fallen significantly.
Daimler Truck, on the other hand, managed to positively surprise investors with a new outlook. For the papers of the truck and bus manufacturer, it went up by 2.7 percent. Shares in industrial gas manufacturer Linde, on the other hand, closed little changed after new statements on the fourth quarter and the year as a whole.
In the MDax, the papers of the construction software manufacturer Nemetschek and the titles of Software AG lost around seven percent according to quarterly reports. According to the figures presented, Aixtron even dropped by 8.3 percent. However, the shares of the supplier of the chip industry paid tribute to the good run of the share, which has increased by almost 50 percent in the course of the year to date. SMA Solar benefited from increased earnings targets in the SDax with an increase of almost 13 percent.
The euro was trading at $0.9984 early in the evening. The ECB set the reference rate at 1.0037 (Wednesday: 1.0023) dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9963 (0.9977) euros.
On the bond market, the current yield rose from 2.11 percent on the previous day to 2.14 percent. The Rex pension index fell by 0.13 percent to 127.46 points. The Bund future rose by 1.34 percent to 140.64 points.
