After the recent strong price recovery, the most important indices on the German stock market fell back somewhat on Wednesday. The Dax was last listed half a percent lower at 15,155 points. The day before, the leading German index had made up for a large part of its high price losses from the start of the week, when it fell below the 15,000 point mark for the first time since the end of January.
Before the meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday, investors are likely to hold back for the time being given the turbulence of the past few days on the stock exchange. These had been caused by the collapse of several regional US banks and concerns of spillover to the broader sector. At the moment, the hope prevails on the floor “that these are limited and manageable individual cases,” wrote stock market expert Thomas Altmann from asset manager QC Partners.
The MDax index for medium-sized companies also went down again on Wednesday morning, losing 1.1 percent to 27,480 points, more clearly than the Dax. The EuroStoxx 50, the leading index in the euro zone, fell by 0.8 percent to 4147 points.
Analyst Konstantin Oldenburger from the trading company CMC Markets is now wondering how the ECB will communicate its future monetary policy to a financial market “which is under a lot of stress due to the first major bank collapses in the USA since Lehman Brothers. Investors will listen very carefully here”. The expert predicts that the central bank will not be dissuaded from its plan to raise the key interest rate in the euro zone by a further 50 basis points. QC expert Altmann is also firmly anticipating further tightening of the interest rate screw.
For the time being, however, the focus in the middle of the week will be on producer prices in the USA from February, which are considered to be another important indicator for the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy. The collapse of the US banking industry had recently raised hopes of a more moderate pace in the Fed’s rate hike cycle. However, the signals from the US monetary authorities recently pointed to interest rate hikes in order to counteract the upward trend in prices.
On the company side in this country, investors had to process more balance sheets – but these were mostly final figures. The Eon share certificates took the top spot in the Dax with a premium of almost 1.5 percent, RWE benefited from this with a plus of 0.8 percent. A trader explained that the final Eon numbers were even better than hoped for based on the key data. Above all, he praised the energy supplier’s outlook. The goals made “a strong impression” and with the planned expansion of the investment program the group is above the expectations of some analysts.
In addition, BMW was one of the biggest Dax winners with a price increase of 1.3 percent. Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois emphasized that the vehicle manufacturer has raised the target corridor for the margin this year and announced an improved investment rate.
At the top of the MDax, the papers of the fertilizer manufacturer K S continued their price recovery with more than three percent. The company had already presented business figures the day before, raised the dividend sharply and announced a share buyback. Lufthansa benefited from a buy recommendation by the Swiss bank UBS with an increase of almost two percent.
In contrast, the business figures and forecasts from Lanxess were bad. Stockbrokers were particularly bothered by the restrained targets for the first quarter of 2023 and the development of the free flow of funds in the final quarter of 2022. The chemical company’s papers slipped to their lowest level since the end of 2022, most recently the minus was 4.2 percent. The price gains of 27 percent at the top in the stock market year 2023 are thus waste.
In the back rows of the stock exchange, after a buy recommendation from HSBC, the shares in the Fielmann optician chain rose to a high since August 2022, most recently they were up 2.1 percent.
