After a friendly opening, investors on the German stock market got cold feet. The Dax turned negative and was down 0.37 percent at 15,046.98 points around Tuesday afternoon. The MDax for medium-sized companies fell by 0.53 percent to 28,539.23 points. The EuroStoxx 50, the leading index for the eurozone, fell by around 0.2 percent.

“The phase of difficult-to-assess economic developments continues and is increasingly evident in individual sectors,” commented market expert Andreas Lipkow. Before the upcoming US economic data and the US company figures from the technology heavyweights Microsoft and Intel, among others, nobody wants to “sit in the wrong nest”.

Relaxing news came from the economic side: the consumer climate in Germany brightened slightly in January. Business sentiment in the euro zone also continued to improve in January. For the first time in six months, it points to economic growth again.

MTU shares fell half a percent after Exane BNP downgraded the engine manufacturer’s shares. Bechtle’s shares, the top value in the MDax, climbed by 1.8 percent. On the market, the good performance of the papers of the IT service provider was justified by the need to catch up compared to its direct competitor Cancom. Its share, which is listed in the SDax, has already gained almost 20 percent this year, while Bechtle has only gained just under 14 percent.

The shares of Secunet Security continued their previous day’s rally and, as the SDax leader, rose by 9.5 percent to their highest level since the beginning of December. This means that the increase since Monday has totaled around 15 percent. The IT security service provider had presented unexpectedly strong sales figures for 2022 at the start of the week.