The high interest rates and the continued dangerous situation in the Middle East are causing investors’ confidence in the German stock market to increasingly dwindle. On Thursday, the Dax slipped below 15,000 points for the first time since the beginning of October.
At the close of trading it was above it again at 15,045.23 points, a decrease of 0.33 percent compared to the previous day. The MDax for medium-sized companies fell by 1.07 percent to 24,437.24 points.
The war between Hamas and Israel continues to weigh on sentiment. Diplomatic efforts continue, but so do military conflicts. Rising capital market interest rates are also putting pressure on the stock market.
On Thursday, the yield on the widely watched US bond in the ten-year maturity range reached almost five percent. The increase is all the more remarkable as the latest signals from the US Federal Reserve actually point to stable key interest rates for the time being. However, with crude oil prices rising again, new inflation risks are emerging.
According to quarterly figures, SAP’s shares were in first place in the Dax with a gain of 5.1 percent. After significant growth, especially in the promising cloud business, the software company is on track to meet its annual targets. Reactions on the market were predominantly positive.
At Merck KGaA, the focus was on the Capital Markets Day. After the year 2023, which was marked by difficulties, the chemical and pharmaceutical company wants to get back on the road to success soon. The shares rose by 3.1 percent.
After the full quarterly report was presented, the Sartorius stocks gained more than nine percent at their peak, but at the end of trading they only gained 1.3 percent. The laboratory and pharmaceutical supplier had already lowered its forecasts for the current year last week. Since then, the shares had lost more than a fifth, but have now recovered somewhat.
Real estate companies continue to suffer particularly badly from high interest rates. As on the previous day, the securities of the real estate group Vonovia ended up in last place in the Dax with a loss of a good five percent. In the MDax, TAG and LEG each recorded losses of around four percent. The SDax Aroundtown small cap index was particularly hard hit, with a price loss of almost 17 percent.
In the MDax, the shares of the online pharmacy Redcare Pharmacy lost 8.6 percent after its Swiss competitor DocMorris lowered its sales outlook when publishing its quarterly figures.
The Eurozone leading index EuroStoxx 50 lost 0.38 percent to 4090.33 points. The leading stock exchange in Paris fell by 0.6 percent. In London, the losses for the FTSE 100 were somewhat greater at 1.2 percent. In New York, the leading index Dow Jones Industrial posted moderate losses at the end of European trading, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 was barely changed.
The euro rose. After the local market closed, the common currency cost 1.0578 US dollars. The European Central Bank (ECB) set the reference rate in the afternoon at 1.0558 (Wednesday: 1.0565) dollars, which means the dollar cost 0.9471 (0.9465) euros.
On the German bond market, the current yield rose from 2.91 percent the day before to 2.94 percent. The Rex bond index fell by 0.19 percent to 122.54 points. The Bund future fell by 0.08 percent to 127.69 points.
