The DAX posted gains on Thursday, closing at 24,945 points on the Xetra exchange, marking a 0.6 percent increase compared to the previous day’s close. The index traded positively throughout the day.
Market analyst Andreas Lipkow noted that investors are continuing to rely heavily on SAP shares during holiday trading. He observed that, in recent months, software companies and cloud providers have struggled to keep up with the positive sentiment in the stock markets, currently being seen as laggards.
Focus remains heavily on more defensive sectors. Lipkow explained that Porsche Holding shares are currently struggling due to an upcoming index rebalancing and will need to yield to shares in Hochtief. Meanwhile, Infineon is being dragged by its US competitor Broadcom. The company has failed to meet investor expectations, particularly falling short of estimates regarding sales development.
Towards the end of trading, SAP, FMC, and Qiagen led the list of top performers on the Frankfurt exchange, while Infineon shares finished at the bottom.
In other market sectors, the price of gas saw a slight decline. A megawatt-hour (MWh) of gas delivery in July cost 49 Euros. If the current price level persists, this implies a consumer price of at least nine to twelve cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), including additional costs and taxes.
The oil price also dropped. A barrel of Brent crude from the North Sea cost $95.04 on Thursday afternoon at 5 PM Central European Time, which was 2.8 percent lower than the close of the previous trading day (equivalent to 277 cents).
The European common currency also strengthened on Thursday afternoon. The Euro was trading at $1.1626, while the dollar traded for 0.8601 Euros.
