Frankfurt / Main (dpa) – The US Federal Reserve is initially sticking to its loose monetary policy and has thus given the stock markets a boost.
The Dax advanced for the third day in a row on Thursday and closed 0.88 percent higher at 15,643.97 points. The MDax of the medium-sized stock market values gained 0.79 percent to 35,483.49 points.
The Federal Reserve (Fed) will continue to buy $ 120 billion a month in securities. At the same time, the central bank signaled that purchases could soon be scaled back. “Overall, the interest rate outlook, but even more the clear and early communication from the Fed, should be seen as positive for the capital markets,” commented chief investor Achim Stranz from Axa Investment.
The shares of the software company SAP reacted positively with plus 1.4 percent to a sales forecast raised by the US competitor Salesforce. Technology stocks benefited Europe-wide from the continued favorable interest rate environment. Infineon rose 2.9 percent and Aixtron, the biggest winner in the MDax, rose 3.2 percent.
Sales and profit warnings from the French auto supplier Faurecia and also from the German lighting specialist Hella, which is being taken over by Faurecia, did not deter investors from buying in the auto sector. Continental rose by 2.5 percent among the biggest DAX winners. Daimler and Volkswagen also grew. Only BMW weakened.
Uniper shares rose 3.1 percent to a record high. Metzler Bank advised buying the papers and argued with the supplier’s expertise in gas-fired power generation. With an increase of almost eleven percent in the SDax small cap index, the shares of the biofuel manufacturer Verbio almost made up for the previous day’s slump. The investment bank Stifel raised the price target for Verbio significantly.
The prices also rose on the other stock exchanges in Europe. The EuroStoxx 50, the leading index in the Eurozone, rose by a good one percent and the Paris stock exchange also reported an increase of one percent. The sharp rise in the British pound, however, slowed the exchange rate in London, and the FTSE 100 practically stepped on the spot. The US leading index Dow Jones Industrial rose by one and a half percent in the evening.
The euro recovered from its losses from the previous evening. Most recently, the common currency cost 1.1737 US dollars. The European Central Bank (ECB) had previously set the reference rate at 1.1715 (Wednesday: 1.1729 dollars).
On the bond market, the current yield rose from minus 0.38 percent the previous day to minus 0.37 percent. The Rex bond index fell by 0.08 percent to 144.86 points. The Bund future fell in the evening by 0.59 percent to 170.73 points.