At 12:30 German time the DAX settled at 25,110 points, 0.3 % higher than yesterday’s close after a fairly quiet start that pushed the index into the green by noon. The best‑performing stocks were Porsche Holding, Airbus and Heidelberg Materials, while the worst‑performing were Bayer, Infineon and Zalando.
Speaking about the market movement, Andreas Lipkow, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said investors in Frankfurt are largely on the sidelines, waiting for the release of key macro‑economic data from the United States later that afternoon. “Sentiment remains cautiously positive, but tension between the United States and Iran – and the accompanying rise in crude prices and a firmer US dollar against the euro – has put a dampener on the mood” Lipkow added.
Lipkow also noted that in this watchful environment investors are returning to familiar strategies, using the lower price of Airbus today for position builds. The company had recently delivered solid quarterly results but issued a more cautious outlook, which initially caused a drop in its share price. “We’ve seen the same pattern in SAP and Commerzbank stocks” he said. “Investors tend to overreact in short‑term market moves and then later try to smooth out the noise”.
The euro was weaker at the close of the session, trading at 1 EUR = 1.1762 USD, which means 1 USD equals 0.8502 EUR.
Oil prices also slipped: one barrel of Brent crude was quoted at $71.36 at 12:00 German time, down 30 cents or 0.4 % from the previous day’s close.