The German stock market trended somewhat weaker on the shortened last trading day of the year. The German leading index Dax fell by 0.52 percent in early trading to a level of 13,998.29 points.

The current weekly balance means a small plus for the Dax, but for the month of December there was 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 he had booked a profit of almost 16 percent.

The trigger for the significant weakness this year was Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine. Energy prices skyrocketed, fueling violent inflation that required central bank intervention. As a result, interest rates rose rapidly and significantly.

The MDax fell by 0.61 percent on Friday morning to 25,282.28 points. For the year as a whole, the index of medium-sized companies lost 28 percent.

Among the individual values ​​in the Dax, the papers of the laboratory supplier Sartorius took the lead without news with a plus of 1.5 percent, while those of the utility Eon fell by 1.4 percent in the end.

In the SDax, Morphosys gave up part of the significant gains of the previous day of just over 10 percent. The biotech company's shares have now fallen by 1.8 percent.