The Dax continued its record hunt on Friday. The record is now around 18,226 points. The leading German index ended trading with an increase of 0.15 percent to 18,205.94 points.
According to the experts at Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen (Helaba), the upward momentum is intact. However, signals of an overbought market situation warned against too much euphoria. The day's winners in the Dax were the papers of the energy technology group Siemens Energy with a plus of 4.2 percent, thus continuing their positive trend.
The MDax of medium-sized companies gained 0.57 percent to 26,622.83 points on Friday. In the USA, the stock indices paid tribute to their recent record rally before the weekend. At the close of the European stock market, the leading barometer Dow Jones Industrial was half a percent lower, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 index showed little change. The Eurozone leading index EuroStoxx 50 fell slightly at the end of the week, as did the French Cac 40. The British FTSE 100 rose.
Good economic prospects for the USA together with likely interest rate cuts this year were the main drivers in the past few days that kept the DAX comfortably above 18,000 points and ultimately gave it a weekly gain of 1.5 percent.
The mood in the German economy is also improving, as the latest Ifo business climate showed. Ifo boss Clemens Fuest sees a “silver lining on the horizon”.
The reporting season continued to be the focus on the stock market. The logistics group DHL was one of the best DAX stocks with a price increase of 2.1 percent. He benefited from positively received quarterly figures from Fedex. The US competitor surprised positively with a noticeably increased operating profit.
Cloudy outlooks from US sporting goods manufacturers Nike and Lululemon had an impact on Adidas and Puma shares, particularly in early trading. While Puma closed with minus 1.5 percent, Adidas ended trading 0.5 percent higher.
The euro fell on Friday to its lowest level since the beginning of March. After the market closed, the common currency was trading at $1.0807. The European Central Bank (ECB) set the reference rate in the afternoon at 1.0823 (Thursday: 1.0907) dollars. The dollar therefore cost 0.9239 (0.9168) euros.
On the bond market, the current yield fell from 2.44 percent the day before to 2.41 percent. The Rex bond index rose by 0.09 percent to 125.09 points. The Bund future gained 0.64 percent to 133.09 points.
