Driven by expectations of an imminent interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve, the DAX set its record at just under 18,893 points over the course of the week. With the 19,000 mark in sight, the Dax seems to be slowly running out of steam in its record hunt, said financial market expert Andreas Lipkow. Commerzbank expert Thorsten Weinelt spoke of an “increasingly overbought situation”, meaning that the upward momentum could initially lose momentum. The US stock exchanges also no longer acted as a driver at the end of the week.
The MDax, which represents the second German stock market league, rose significantly this week by 2.6 percent, sending a signal that it is trying to reduce its significant catch-up potential compared to the Dax. On Friday it fell by 0.24 percent to 27,441.23 points.
With regard to news about companies, things were quieter before the weekend, also because the reporting season is coming to an end in Germany. There was a latecomer with Wüstenrot
The focus was on the shares of the defense company Renk. They lost five percent in the SDax after being placed at the top by the financial investor Triton, but over the course of time they more than completely made up for this. In the end they were up 0.4 percent. Investors apparently sensed a buying opportunity after a correction since the beginning of April.
In the MDax, shares in the chemical company Lanxess fell by 4.1 percent. Exane BNP had downgraded the shares, as had the analysis house Jefferies. The shares of Redcare Pharmacy, the biggest index winner last year, came under even greater pressure. They continued the correction that began at the beginning of April with a discount of a good nine percent.
There was hardly anything left for Siemens investors on Friday from the significant price gains of the past few weeks. The shares of the DAX group temporarily slipped to their lowest level since February before curbing the decline slightly to 1.4 percent. On Monday they had reached a record high, which was recently followed by profit-taking.
Sartorius were weak again, with minus 3.3 percent they fell towards the annual low. The path to recovery for the laboratory and pharmaceutical equipment supplier remains rocky, wrote Deutsche Bank in its commentary on Capital Markets Day. It is disappointing that incoming orders appear to weaken again in the second quarter.
Some stocks were again traded at a dividend discount on Friday and therefore appeared visually cheaper. In the Dax these were Adidas, Eon, Deutsche Bank and Heidelberg Materials, although the loss at Adidas was limited.
The Eurozone leading index EuroStoxx 50 fell by 0.16 percent to 5064.14 points on Friday. There were also moderate losses on the national stock exchanges in Paris and London. In New York, the most important indices were close to their previous day’s levels at the close of European trading.
The euro last cost 1.0870 US dollars. The European Central Bank set the reference rate at 1.0844 (Thursday: 1.0866) US dollars. The dollar therefore cost 0.9221 euros.
On the bond market, the current yield rose from 2.49 percent the day before to 2.54 percent. The Rex bond index lost 0.25 percent to 124.50 points. The Bund future fell by 0.40 percent to 130.78 points.