FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) – The Dax got the new stock market year off to a flying start on Thursday. The 20,000 points mark has been crossed. However, lackluster economic data from China dampened much of the session. The morale of manufacturing companies deteriorated significantly in December.
Finally, the stock market barometer ended the session at the highest of the day, with an increase of 0.58% to 20,024.66 points. Slight support came from an early friendly exchange in the United States. However, trading volumes in Germany remained low. We will have to wait a few days to see more significant prices, when investors return to the markets in force.
The Dax is still around 500 points short of reaching its mid-December record of just over 20,500 points. However, it ended the year 2024 with a gain of almost 19%. As the first days and weeks of a new stock market year are usually accompanied by optimism and capital inflows, as market observer Jürgen Molnar of the broker Robomarkets writes, the flagship index has quite a additional potential.
The MDax ended the day up 0.51% at 25,718.85 points. According to Molnar, 2025 could be the year of second- and third-tier companies. He expects a political wind from Berlin and therefore sees in the lower ranks “a very great potential for catching up.” Finally, 2024 had gone badly for the mid-cap index, just as it had for the SDax small-cap index. Both had gone back a year.
Airbus took the lead in the Dax with an increase of 3.7%. Analysts expect strong delivery figures in December. The annual target set by the aircraft manufacturer, namely 770 aircraft delivered, should however be narrowly missed according to certain circles.
Shares of car manufacturers fell particularly on the Dax. BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen lost between 1.1 and 1.9 percent. The high sales figures of Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers weighed on this. In particular, “BYD has hit the gas for the end of 2024,” as the experts in the Bernecker-Daily letter wrote.
Shares of consumer goods and adhesives maker Henkel also fell 1.8 percent. The American manufacturer of industrial glues missed the average of analysts’ estimates by lowering its forecasts for adjusted annual earnings per share (EPS) and operating profit (Ebitda).
Hellofresh took the lead in the MDax with an increase of 8.0%. According to Borsenbrief author Hans Bernecker, the fact that the kitchen box supplier wants to establish itself in the fast food and frozen food sector with new quick meals also contributed to the price rise. Mutares jumped 12.1% in the SDax. The investment company continued a series of acquisitions with the purchase of Spanish industrial services company Nervión.
The EuroStoxx 50 gained 0.45% to 4,917.88 points, while the FTSE 100 rose just over one percent in the UK. In Switzerland, the stock market remained closed. In the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial rose 0.2% and the technology-dominated Nasdaq indices rose a little more sharply.
The euro fell and was trading at 1.0260 US dollars in the evening. The European Central Bank set the reference rate at $1.0321 (Tuesday: 1.0389). The dollar was therefore worth 0.9688 (0.9625) euros.
On the bond market, the current yield rate rose from 2.31% on Monday to 2.29%. The Rex bond index rose 0.19 percent to 126.13 points. The Bund futures contract recently fell 0.08 percent to 133.18 points./ck/he
— By Claudia Müller, dpa-AFX —
