KShortly after the rise of Commerzbank for Linde in the Dax, there was another change in the leading German index. The Düsseldorf-based arms manufacturer Rheinmetall will take the place of Fresenius Medical Care in the Dax from March 20th. This was announced by Deutsche Börse late Friday evening.
The stock exchange thus follows its “fast entry” rule, according to which a company is promoted to the index, which comprises 40 stocks, if it has climbed to at least 33rd place in the most recent ranking according to the market value of freely tradable shares. Rheinmetall has succeeded in doing this after being ranked 37th in January. Rheinmetall’s share price doubled immediately after the start of the war in Ukraine. It has risen by around a third since the beginning of the year.
Rheinmetall replaces the currently weakest Dax value. This is the healthcare group Fresenius Medical Care, which entered the Dax for Hoechst in 1999. Rheinmetall is not the first arms manufacturer in the Dax. Airbus also earns part of its money with armaments. The debate about a sustainable Dax and whether this can be reconciled with armaments is therefore not new to the stock exchange.
Armor is also in demand in the second row of stock exchanges
Especially since an armaments company will also be included in the M-Dax, Hensoldt AG from Taufkirchen, south of Munich, which went public in 2020. Here, too, the start of the war in the Ukraine caused the rate to double. Since the beginning of the year, the share has gained momentum with a price increase of 50 percent. The valuation is still moderate with a price-earnings ratio of 13.
Thüringer Jenoptik AG is also new to the M-Dax. It also counts the armaments industry among its customers, but is also active in many other areas with laser sensors, optics, optoelectronics, mechanics and electronics, for example as a supplier to the semiconductor industry. United Bioenergie Verbio from Leipzig and Darmstadt-based Software AG have to leave the M-Dax. Both stocks had recently performed very poorly.
In the Tec-Dax, the Berlin-based radiation technology specialist Eckert&Ziegler has replaced the Swabian battery manufacturer Varta, whose shares have fallen far short of previous highs. In the S-Dax, the Mannheim-based bioethanol manufacturer Cropenergies has to give way to the Stuttgart-based home savings and finance group Wüstenrot&Württembergische AG.