Before the monetary policy decisions of important central banks, investors got cold feet on the German stock market at the start of the week. The Dax ended trading on Monday down 0.16 percent at 15,126.08 points, and the leading index even fell below 15,000 points for a short time. The MDax for medium-sized companies even fell by 0.71 percent to 28,869.14 points. In addition, there were disappointing economic data.
Interest rate decisions by the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB) are due in the next few days. The market is currently expecting another rate hike by the ECB of 0.5 percentage points. The Fed, on the other hand, is likely to slow down again and raise interest rates by 0.25 points. The prospect of further interest rate hikes had a particularly negative impact on technology and real estate stocks, which are considered interest-sensitive. The chip group Infineon lost a good 3 percent and the housing company Vonovia lost 1.9 percent. Siltronic shares were among the biggest losers in the MDax, falling by 3.9 percent.
In addition, Commerzbank provided a topic of conversation after surprisingly presented preliminary annual figures, since after two loss-free years on the basis of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, it sees itself well prepared for the Linde successor in the Dax. The shares continued the upward trend that had already started in mid-December with a price increase of 1.1 percent. The armaments group and automotive supplier Rheinmetall, another possible Dax candidate, lost 0.4 percent in return. Meanwhile, the Stabilus papers fell by 2.5 percent according to figures. Stabilus had to accept a setback in profitability, but still sees itself as on course towards its goals.
In the small-cap index SDax, the shares of the wind farm project developer PNE were in free fall: they extended the price loss from the lowest level since September to a fifth and finally gave way by around 16 percent.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial recently rose 0.1 percent, while the tech stocks on the Nasdaq fell significantly. The Eurozone leading index EuroStoxx closed 0.46 percent lower at 4158.63 points. In Paris, the Cac 40 fell 0.2 percent at the start of the week, while the FTSE 100 edged up slightly in London.
The euro appreciated on Monday, benefiting from surprisingly high inflation data from Spain. In the late afternoon, the common currency cost 1.0868 US dollars, at times the course had previously passed the 1.09 dollar mark. The ECB set the reference rate at 1.0903 (Friday: 1.0865) dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9171 (0.9204) euros.
On the bond market, the current yield rose from 2.25 percent on Friday to 2.28 percent. The Rex pension index fell by 0.13 percent to 126.10 points. The Bund future lost 0.79 percent to 136.48 points.
