The DAX remained in positive territory on Friday afternoon, continuing a trend that began with a strong start to the trading day. At around 12:30 p.m., the leading index was calculated at approximately 25,065 points, marking a gain of 0.2 percent compared to the previous closing level. Rheinmetall, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW held the top spots in the performance rankings, while Volkswagen’s shares took a decline.
Andreas Lipkow, Lead Market Analyst at CMC Markets, commented that today’s settlement date was significantly influencing trading. He noted that as settlement times become more extended on derivatives exchanges, activity is increasingly dominated by large institutional investors, often disregarding the news environment.
Lipkow added that the market had already been affected by numerous specific factors in the lead-up to the day, turning it into a pivotal event. He explained that protracted negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, alongside central bank meetings, made it difficult for investors to push the stock markets consistently in any single direction. He concluded by noting that the final settlement of individual stocks would also be interesting. While interests in the automotive, semiconductor, and defense sectors are already apparent, he warned that short-term price movements could still hold several surprises for the second half of the day.
In other markets, the European community currency showed some weakness during the Friday afternoon session. The euro traded at 1.1457 US dollars, while the dollar fetched 0.8728 euros.
Commodity prices also experienced shifts. The price of gold dropped noticeably; Feinounces were trading at $4,154 in the afternoon, a decrease of 1.3 percent, which equates to €116.57 per gram. Meanwhile, the oil price fell. The North Sea Brent crude barrel was priced at $79.36 around 12 p.m. German time, representing a decrease of 0.6 percent or 49 cents from the prior day’s close.
