Friday January 11, 12:07 PM
German shares flat in midday trade as upbeat statements offset mixed Asian mkts
FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - German shares were rather flat in midday trade after some of the index's large caps made upbeat statements, offsetting the effects of a mixed showing on Asian markets overnight.
Investors remained cautious as they mull over whether the US may be headed for a recession.
At 12.23 pm, the DAX (Xetra: news) was down 9.71 points or 0.13 pct at 7,703.38 points, having traded between 7,699.74 points and 7,746.47 points so far today.
The MDAX gained 0.62 points or 0.01 pct to 8,710.55 points, while the TecDAX (Xetra: news) was down 5.66 points or 0.65 pct at 864.03 points.
DAX futures fell 58.00 points or 0.74 pct to 7,773.50 points, while bund futures were 0.13 points or 0.11 pct lower at 115.00.
The euro was trading at 1.4777 usd, compared with 1.4773 in London morning trade.
Leading large-caps lower, Infineon (Xetra: 623100 - news) dropped 0.28 eur or 4.01 pct to 6.71, hurt by a broker downgrade of the European semiconductor sector, poor results at Austria Microsystems (AMS.SW - news) , weak memory chip prices and fears a global economic slowdown will curb demand.
Earlier this morning, Credit Suisse downgraded the chip sector to 'marketweight' from 'overweight.' The broker said monthly integrated circuit unit growth is expected to peak in the first quarter of 2008, and noted that the sector has historically not performed well when IC unit growth peaks.
Henkel KGaA lost 1.16 eur or 3.22 pct to 34.82.
Utilities were down, with E.ON retreating 3.98 eur or 2.60 pct to 148.82, offsetting yesterday's gains.
Peer RWE declined 2.40 eur or 2.43 pct to 96.39, on news that electricity wholesaler MVM won a tender for a 10.54 pct stake in Hungarian electricity distributors Elmu. The move pours cold water on the prospect of majority owner RWE (Xetra: 703712 - news) buying out the remainder of Elmu shares in a public offer, as well as speculation that it would enter into a similar transaction for sector peer Emasz (Frankfurt: A0DNVC - news) , in which it also has a majority stake.
Adidas (Xetra: 500340 - news) dropped 0.82 eur or 1.80 pct to 44.61, continuing yesterday's trend.
Leading blue-chip stocks higher, Lufthansa (Xetra: 823212 - news) gained 0.41 eur or 2.47 pct to 17.01 after the company's chief financial officer, Stephan Gemkow, affirmed the company expects to have posted 1.3 bln eur operating profit in the full year to Dec 31, 2007.
Gemkow made the statement to journalists on the sidelines of an event to inaugurate a new maintenance hangar for the Airbus A380 aircraft model, a spokeswoman said.
MAN AG (Xetra: 593700 - news) rising 2.10 or 2.29 pct to 93.75, boosted by the release of positive sales figures by some of Germany's biggest carmakers this week.
Metro (Xetra: 725750 - news) gained 1.18 eur or 2.17 pct to 55.45 eur, still benefiting from yesterday's strong trading statement saying that sales rose 8.3 pct to 19.9 bln eur, helped by growth outside its German home market. Excluding acquisitions, sales rose 7.7 pct in the three months through December, the company said in a statement.
Deutsche Boerse (Xetra: 581005 - news) advanced 2.25 eur or 1.87 pct to 122.34, after the company said it will move staff from its location in Frankfurt-Hausen, Germany to the neighbouring town of Eschborn, which will result in a 'significant' reduction in its trade tax burden and building occupancy costs.
Deutsche Boerse also said it expects to achieve a tax rate of under 30 pct this year, compared with the previous estimate of 31-33 pct.
Hypo Real Estate (Xetra: 802770 - news) jumped 0.46 eur or 1.42 pct to 32.91.
Over on the MDAX (Xetra: news) , Arques fell 1.02 eur or 5.30 pct to 18.23. Earlier this week the company's former Arquana holdings filed for insolvency.
At the other end of the index, SGL Carbon (Xetra: 723530 - news) led German mid-caps higher, adding 2.54 eur or 8.46 pct to 32.57, after CEO Robert Koehler upgraded his full-year 2008 sales growth target to 10-15 pct from above 5 pct.
TecDAX-listed Pfeiffer Vacuum (Xetra: 691660 - news) gained 2.72 eur or 5.25 pct to 54.50, while Software AG slid 3.39 eur or 6.76 pct to 46.76.
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