The Dax narrowly missed its record high on Wednesday. The German benchmark index expanded its recent gains in a still positive stock market environment and has since risen to 16,285 points.
The high of 16,290 points reached in November was thus within reach. At the close of trading there was still an increase of 0.74 percent to 16,271.75 points on the price board. The MDax of medium-sized companies rose by 0.30 percent to 35,631.11 points.
Since the Dax’s most recent interim low on December 20 at 15,060, the index has now risen by eight percent. The stock market barometer is currently benefiting primarily from the hope that the effects of the corona pandemic on the global economy will be limited.
In the evening, investors look to the USA, where the latest minutes of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting from mid-December are due for publication. Because of the high inflation, experts fear that the Fed could raise interest rates faster and more strongly than expected. However, this prospect of interest rate hikes has hardly slowed the recent price rally on the stock markets, at best the technology sector has come under a little pressure.
The leading Eurozone index EuroStoxx 50 gained 0.56 percent to 4392.15 points in the middle of the week. In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial was quoted 0.2 percent higher at the end of European trading, while the Nasdaq technology exchange posted losses.
The European automotive sector continued to be in good shape with a record high. Investors bought auto shares because they saw the greatest potential for catching up in this sector, explained market expert Andreas Lipkow from Comdirect. Daimler were the best value in the Dax with a plus of a good 4 percent. BMW and Volkswagen followed with price gains of around 2.2 percent each.
A study by the US bank JPMorgan also moved car values, both up and down. The earnings momentum at the supplier Stabilus is likely to take a short break, the analysts wrote. With a minus of a little more than four percent, the Stabilus shares were among the biggest losers in the small caps index SDax.
The shares of RWE were the worst in the Dax with a discount of 3.4 percent. Utility stocks that are considered defensive were avoided in the positive overall market across Europe. Eon fell in the Dax by 1.5 percent. In the MDax, Uniper brought up the rear with minus 2.3 percent, as a result of increased refinancing requirements.
Merck KGaA – the second strongest DAX stock in 2021 – lost almost as much as RWE. As is often the case with top values of a year, investors like to take some profits here at the beginning of the new year. This is also currently the case with the shares of the pharmaceutical and chemical company.
After the Xetra close, the euro was quoted at 1.1334 US dollars. The European Central Bank had set the reference rate in the afternoon at 1.1319 (Tuesday: 1.1279) dollars, the dollar cost 0.8835 (0.8866) euros.
The current yield on the bond market remained at minus 0.23 percent. The Rex bond index stagnated at 143.84 points. The Bund future recently fell by 0.05 percent to 170.69 points.