For the first time in its more than 30-year history, the German share index comprises 40 companies. The ten additional DAX members have been on the course slip since Monday. The aim of the historical reform of the most important German stock market barometer: The leading index should provide a more comprehensive picture of the German economy. In addition, Deutsche Börse is now applying stricter standards to the members of the Dax family. Among the ten newcomers, Airbus is by far the company with the largest market value. With the Franco-German aircraft manufacturer, the Dax is getting another heavyweight at the level of the automaker Daimler and the insurance giant Allianz.
The following nine companies have also been new to the Dax since Monday: the chemicals dealer Brenntag, the cooking box supplier Hellofresh, the holding company Porsche, the sporting goods manufacturer Puma, the biotechnology and diagnostics company Qiagen, the pharmaceutical and laboratory supplier Sartorius, the medical technology group Siemens Healthineers, the and fragrance manufacturer Symrise as well as the online fashion retailer Zalando. As early as the 30th Dax anniversary in July 2018, Deutsche Börse boss Theodor Weimer had been thinking out loud about “setting up the benchmark index a little broader” - after all, the Dax is the barometer of the German economy. For a long time, the index was dominated by the four sectors of chemicals, the automotive industry, energy and financial services.Now, for example, aspiring Internet companies are to be given a place in the shop window of the German economy.
New rules because of Wirecard
The Wirecard accounting scandal accelerated the tightening of the rules.
The Munich-based payment service provider was able to stay in the Dax for months despite billions in air bookings that were exposed in the summer of 2020 and became one of the largest fraud cases in German economic history.
Because according to the rules in force at the time, Deutsche Börse could not simply throw the share out of the index overnight.
There was also criticism that the food supplier Delivery Hero was promoted to the Dax for Wirecard and thus a company that has never made any money in day-to-day business since it was founded in 2011.
In the future, Deutsche Börse plans to review the composition of the Dax twice a year instead of once a year.
Only profitable companies should be included.
Bankruptcy candidates and corporations who fail to comply with their duty to publish interim reports on time are said to have lost nothing in the first German stock market league.
At the same time as the Dax expansion, the MDax of the medium-sized stocks will be reduced from 60 to 50 titles and will therefore lose a lot of weight.
Five companies from the SDax small cap index moved up to the reduced MDax on Monday: the Vodafone transmitter mast subsidiary Vantage Towers, the recycling specialist Befesa, the forklift manufacturer Jungheinrich, the financial services provider Hypoport and Zooplus, an online retailer for pet supplies.
Dax starts the day weak
At the start of its new line-up with 40 members, the Dax gave way on Monday.
In the wake of the weak targets from the USA and Hong Kong, it fell to its lowest level since the end of July.
After the first few minutes of trading, the German benchmark index was last at 1.62 percent in the red at 15,238.72 points.
The Dax has already had three weeks of price drops behind it.
On Wall Street, the indices were also weak on Friday after the big expiry day on the futures exchanges.
The Hong Kong stock exchange followed on Monday with heavy losses due to the worsening crisis of the Chinese real estate company Evergrande.
The MDax of the 60 medium-sized stock market values also fell significantly in early trading at the beginning of the week and lost 1.47 percent to 34,775.44 points. The European benchmark index EuroStoxx 50 fell by 1.58 percent to 4065.57 points.