Before the interest rate decision by the European Central Bank (ECB), prices on the German stock market came under considerable pressure on Thursday. The majority of economists believe that the ECB will raise key interest rates again by a significant 0.75 percentage points. The central bank is likely to react to the record inflation in the euro zone, which was almost ten percent recently.

The leading index Dax fell by 0.54 percent to 13,124.00 points by midday, after having reached its highest level since mid-September in the middle of the week. The MDax for medium-sized stocks fell by 1.32 percent to 23,891.57 points. The EuroStoxx 50, the stock market barometer for the euro zone, fell by 0.61 percent.

The company's reporting season also remains in focus. At the end of the Dax, Infineon shares fell by more than four percent. The papers got sucked into the competitor STMicroelectronics, whose shares recently collapsed by more than seven percent on the Euronext stock exchange.

The consumer goods group Beiersdorf is becoming more optimistic thanks to continued robust development and has raised its sales forecast. However, this was already expected, wrote analyst Celine Pannuti from the US bank JPMorgan. The shares lost 1.6 percent.

Daimler Truck managed to surprise investors with a new outlook. The shares rose by almost two percent among the best values ​​in the Dax.

In the MDax, Nemetschek's shares fell by almost nine percent. Despite decent growth in the third quarter, the construction software specialist is sticking to its annual forecast