In Frankfurt, investors were relatively relaxed about the continued tightening of monetary policy by the US Federal Reserve on Thursday. Towards the end of the first hour of trading, the Dax was just above the previous day’s level at 15,218.94 points. Compared to the reaction on the New York stock exchanges, it was robust with a slight premium of 0.02 percent. However, the indications for the US indices are now also moving upwards.
The MDax of medium-sized stocks rose by 0.16 percent on Thursday to 26,906.43 points, while the Eurozone’s leading index, the EuroStoxx 50, was also just above its previous day’s level.
The Fed initially remained resolute in its fight against inflation, according to Commerzbank. As expected, the key interest rate was raised by 0.25 percentage points despite the recent turbulence in the banking sector. In addition, it was signaled that another interest rate hike is planned for this year. On Thursday, one could come from the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of England.
Analyst Bernd Krampen from NordLB noted in the morning that the bank turbulence indicated that the “interest rate hike orgy” would soon end. Apparently, it is being assumed that the more restrictive credit conditions to be expected as a result of the banking crisis will slow down the economy and inflation to such an extent that it is more likely that the US Federal Reserve will wait.
In the banking sector itself, however, the mood remained subdued, especially since US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen spoke out against “blanket” deposit insurance to stabilize the US banking system the day before. The stocks of Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank fell by up to 0.8 percent in the morning.
For Deutsche Börse, a beneficiary of the recent stock market fluctuations, it was enough for a record high with an increase of 1.5 percent. Rheinmetall also continued their rally. With an increase of more than two percent, they gnawed at their record. Here there was progress with a possible order of more than 100 Boxer tanks from Australian Rheinmetall production by Germany.
In anticipation of an end to interest rate spirals, investors in the tech industry became bolder. The sector was a European leader. In the Dax, Infineon shares rose by 1.2 percent. After the first rashes from the previous evening, the technology-heavy US index Nasdaq 100 is now also starting to open much higher on Thursday.
In the second and third series of stock exchanges, things went up particularly well for Nemetschek: The titles of the construction software manufacturer rose by 11.4 percent, although it expects slower growth in 2023 due to the switch to a subscription model. According to Stifel analyst Chandramouli Sriraman, however, the outlook shows that the subscription model will pay off in the coming years. Then Nemetschek expects growth to accelerate. The stock managed to jump to a high since September 2022.
There were clearly positive reactions at Scout24 with an increase of 3.6 percent. It was well received that the online real estate marketplace paid its shareholders more dividends after strong profit growth last year.
On the other hand, the shares of CTS Eventim, Vitesco and LPKF showed great weakness. In these cases, rather disappointing outlooks for the current year were seen as a burden. At the event marketer CTS, this was acknowledged with a discount of 6.8 percent, while at the automotive supplier Vitesco it went down by 4.6 percent.
The pressure on the laser specialist LPKF was even greater, with a price slump of 13 percent.
