Deutsche Börse has not yet made it clear whether Commerzbank is now entitled to be included in the Dax.

The Frankfurter Bank published business figures in advance on Monday so that the stock exchange can still use them for its January ranking list, which was completed on January 31st.

In February, this is then the basis for the decision on the Linde successor in the Dax.

As reported, Linde is moving to the New York Stock Exchange.

February 24th is the last day in the Dax, on February 17th the stock exchange wants to determine the successor.

Daniel Mohr

Editor in Business.

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In order to be eligible for inclusion in the Dax, a company must have closed the last two financial years with a profit.

Commerzbank reported a loss in 2020 and a profit in 2021.

The missing profit indicator for 2022 has now been delivered.

The stock exchange had previously heard that business figures published in advance were also taken into account in the tables within twelve to 24 hours, and that the authorization for a Dax ascent was given.

Twelve to 24 hours after the reported Commerzbank profit, however, the stock exchange did not want to be determined on Tuesday whether the Commerzbank figures will now be incorporated in time.

Wait until Friday evening

“Like all other basic criteria, the profitability criterion is evaluated according to rule 4.1.1.2 on the reference date for the creation of the ranking list.

The ranking list will be published on the third trading day at 10 p.m.,” the stock exchange said.

The deadline was Tuesday, the third trading day in February is Friday, so market participants will have to be patient until then.

It should now be clear that Commerzbank is the most valuable company outside of the Dax on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange based on the stock market standard for freely tradable shares.

The investment bank Stifel Europe sees Commerzbank with 10.2 billion euros far ahead of the Düsseldorf-based armaments group Rheinmetall with 9.4 billion euros.

Rheinmetall would be included in the Dax if Commerzbank failed on the profitability criterion.

Rheinmetall's past fiscal years have all been positive.

The companies affected are also unclear as to how the stock exchange will handle the profitability criterion introduced in 2021 in the wake of the Wirecard scandal.

"We would not have done it with the preliminary figures if we had not been confident that it would now be enough for the Dax," says Commerzbank with the caveat: "A residual risk remains."

Other market participants report that the data provider Refinitiv, which checks the profit figures for the stock exchange, does not incorporate the data into the tables so quickly that it is still sufficient for the January ranking list relevant to the Linde successor.

It is very important to the exchange that all market participants are informed at the same time.

It also wants to strictly adhere to its rules, according to which such notifications are only published for paying customers on the evening of the third trading day in the following month.

There is still no ad hoc decision on the Linde successor and ETF providers and other market participants still have enough time from February 17th to deal with the Dax climber.

Nevertheless, there was speculation on the market: the Commerzbank share was one of the winners in the M-Dax on Monday and Tuesday, Rheinmetall dropped a lot, but also because the company announced a capital increase.