The German stock market said goodbye to the long Easter weekend after quiet trading with premiums. The Dax closed 0.50 percent higher at 15,597.89 points. This results in a weekly gain of around 0.2 percent. The leading German index had reached 15,736 points this week, its highest level since January 2022. The MDax of medium-sized stock market values rose by 0.84 percent to 27,198.33 points on Maundy Thursday.
The European stock exchanges also showed their better side: the leading eurozone index, the EuroStoxx 50, rose by 0.3 percent. France’s Cac 40 was up 0.1 percent and Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 1.0 percent. In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial recently fell by 0.2 percent.
The focus is now on the US government’s official labor market report on Good Friday, to which the markets in this country will not be able to react until Tuesday. A decline in employment figures and average hourly wages is expected, said analyst Christian Henke from Broker IG. “If job growth and hourly wage numbers come out too high, inflation and interest rate concerns could resurface. If the data is too weak for investors, recession fears are likely to start circulating again.”
On the company side, Gerresheimer was keeping an eye on quarterly figures. Strong demand for plastic packaging, inhalers and medication ampoules made of special glass drove the company at the start of the year. Gerresheimer is maintaining its strong growth momentum, a retailer said. However, experts criticized the weak free cash flow. The shares lost 4.3 percent after a roller coaster ride as the MDax tail light.
Symrise, the second-best Dax stock, gained four percent after a positive study by JPMorgan. A turnaround in earnings is in sight for flavor manufacturers, it said.
In the small-cap index SDax, the stocks of the leasing specialist Grenke advanced by nine percent after a buy recommendation from Deutsche Bank. The papers of the auto supplier Schaeffler recovered thanks to an upgrade to “buy” by Warburg Research by 4.8 percent. Zeal’s gained 7.2 percent after subsidiary Lotto24 received permission to host virtual slot machines on the Internet.
The euro was last traded at $1.0925. The European Central Bank (ECB) had set the reference rate at $1.0915 in the afternoon. The dollar had thus cost 0.9162 euros.
On the bond market, the current yield fell from 2.30 percent on the previous day to 2.14 percent. The Rex pension index rose by 0.57 percent to 127.05 points. The Bund future gained 0.05 percent to 137.19 points. (dpa)