The Dax fell below 14,000 points again on the last trading day of the year. At lunchtime, the German stock exchange barometer fell by 0.58 percent to 13,989.67 points with very low trading volume. The current weekly balance means a small plus for the Dax, for the month of December there is currently a minus of almost three percent.

Calculated over the year, the Dax is heading for a loss of almost twelve percent and thus the worst stock market year in four years. In 2021, the leading German index had posted a gain of almost 16 percent.

The trigger for the significant weakness this year was Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine. Energy prices soared, fueling an already high level of inflation that made central bank intervention necessary. As a result, interest rates rose rapidly and significantly.

The MDax fell by 0.41 percent to 25,331.89 points at noon today. For the year as a whole, the index of medium-sized companies lost 28 percent.

On the corporate side, the price swings were limited. Zalando, Adidas and Vonovia were among the weaker Dax stocks of the day. Over the year as a whole, these three stocks suffered the largest losses among the Dax members with discounts of up to 52 percent. The paper from Beiersdorf, on the other hand, rose slightly by 0.4 percent at lunchtime and is also one of the favorites for the year as a whole with an increase of almost 20 percent.