The Dax stayed just below its record high on Friday morning. He had achieved that on Wednesday with a good 16,336 points. The interest rate decisions in the euro zone and the USA in the past few days were as expected, as were the monetary policy signals.

The focus is now on the big decay, which usually causes price fluctuations during the course of the day. Futures contracts on shares and indices on the futures exchanges expire during the course of the day. Stockbrokers speak of the "great decline" when options and futures on indices and individual stocks expire on the same day.

Shortly after the start of trading, the leading German index gained 0.14 percent to 16,312.09 points. He is thus heading for a weekly profit of a little more than two percent. The MDax of medium-sized companies rose by 0.27 percent on Friday to 27,403.66 points. The EuroStoxx 50 rose by 0.15 percent to 4371.85 points.