Before the key interest rate decision by the US Federal Reserve, the Dax made up for an early slide below the 12,600 point mark. On Wednesday, investors initially reacted nervously to the fact that Russia had ordered a partial mobilization of its own armed forces. This temporarily pushed the leading index into the red by more than one percent. At 12,520 points, it reached a two-month low.
By noon, the Dax was able to make up for the losses, most recently it was just under 0.03 percent up at 12,675.13 points. He was able to maintain the 12,600 points near which the leading index had recently felt support several times. Stockbrokers see a ray of hope in the fact that the trip below this area was caught up again in the first half hour of trading. Investors had initially become bolder again at the reduced level, it said.
Other indices also just made it into the profit zone recently. The MDax, which has been at a low since 2020 for days, rose slightly by 0.07 percent to 23,776.24 points. The leading eurozone index, the EuroStoxx, was only just 0.1 percent in the green.
As far as the US interest rate decision is concerned, the expectation of another high rate hike is already priced in. When the Fed announces its decision on the evening of European time, most experts assume that the central bankers will raise the key interest rate by 0.75 percentage points for the third time in a row. However, some market participants also expect more.
Meanwhile, almost seven months after the start of the war, Russia ordered a partial mobilization of its own armed forces. According to Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, 300,000 reservists are to be mobilized for the fight against Ukraine. The beneficiaries of such news were once again the shares of German armaments companies: Rheinmetall and Hensoldt were each up more than ten percent.
The topic of the energy crisis also provided a lot to talk about. As already expected, Germany’s largest gas importer Uniper is now being nationalized: the federal government wants to buy all shares owned by the previous majority owner Fortum for 1.70 euros each. A capital increase of EUR 8 billion at this price is also planned. The federal government will then own around 98.5 percent of the shares in Uniper.
The step will lead to the dilution among existing shareholders that market participants have already feared. The Uniper title had gone out of trading the day before at EUR 4.18, well above the agreed price – the price has now collapsed with major fluctuations. For the first time, the price was below the 3-euro mark at 2.90 euros last paid. In percentage terms, this meant a price slump of around 30 percent. In the case of Fortum, on the other hand, investors reacted with great relief.
At 2.2 percent, the biggest Dax losers were Deutsche Post shares. Goldman Sachs analyst Patrick Creuset gave up his previous buy rating on expectations that the logistics sector’s profitability would peak in the third quarter. He now anticipates a multi-year down cycle and a new normal that could be worse than pre-pandemic 2019.
