BERLIN: German stocks were off to a shaky start on Wednesday, with the benchmark DAX index losing 74.22 points, or 0.59 percent, opening at 12,542.58 points.
The biggest winner among Germany’s 30 largest listed companies at the start of trading was Deutsche Post, increasing by 1.13 percent, followed by industrial gas producer Linde with 0.08 percent.
On Tuesday after trading, Deutsche Post announced a “significantly increased earnings in the second quarter (Q2) of 2020 despite COVID-19,” with earnings before interest and tax growing by around 16 percent year-on-year to around 890 million euros (1.01 billion U.S. dollars).
“We have navigated our company through the crisis very well,” said Frank Appel, chief executive officer of Deutsche Post, and stressed that the company’s employees had “contributed in an outstanding manner in recent months.”
Shares of Wirecard fell by 3.19 percent. The German financial service provider was the biggest loser at the start of trading on Wednesday, followed by aircraft engine manufacturer MTU Aero Engines and sportswear manufacturer Adidas, declining by 1.61 percent and 1.29 percent respectively.
On Wednesday, German carmaker Daimler is scheduled to hold its annual general meeting virtually. It will be the first annual meeting for CEO Ola Kaellenius who succeeded Dieter Zetsche in May last year.
Shares of Daimler had fallen by more than 50 percent over the first three months of 2020 to a low of around 22 euros per share at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in Germany in March. Since then, shares have started recovering and were trading at around 37.5 euros per share on early Wednesday.
The yield on German ten-year bonds dropped 0.018 percentage points to minus 0.442 percent, and the euro was trading almost unchanged at 1.1276 U.S. dollars, increasing by 0.01 percent on Wednesday morning.
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