Before the upcoming interest rate decisions by large central banks, the Dax was bobbing. The leading German index hardly moved and was listed slightly lower at 15,115.75 points at midday. The stock market barometer had already practically stopped on the previous day.

The MDax of medium-sized companies rose by 0.11 percent to 28,844.57 points in the middle of the week. The EuroStoxx 50, the leading index in the eurozone, also went up a bit.

The US Federal Reserve announced its interest rate decision on the evening after Xetra trading ended, followed by the European Central Bank and the Bank of England on Thursday. There are signs of further interest rate hikes given persistently high inflation and a strong labor market in the USA.

At the end of the Dax, Hannover Re shares lost three and a half percent and thus suffered from a cautious outlook. The goal of an annual surplus of at least 1.7 billion euros could be disappointing, wrote analyst Thorsten Wenzel from DZ Bank. The reason for the reluctance is probably the intention to replenish the technical provisions after several years of high major loss expenditure.

The news from Hanover also weighed on the European insurance sector as a whole. Munich Re's shares fell by more than two percent and Talanx by almost three percent.

In Germany, shares of software providers came under pressure. Software AG's shares at the end of the MDax fell by around 14 percent. The company did well at the end of the year and was able to meet its own targets - but the profits targeted for the new year fall short of the expectations of experts.