Germany shares higher at close of trade; DAX up 0.35%

Investing.com – Germany equities were higher at the close on Monday, as gains in the Basic Resources , Retail and Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Frankfurt, the DAX rose 0.35%, while the MDAX index added 0.23%, and the TecDAX index climbed 0.60%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the DAX were Fresenius SE & Co KGAA O.N. (DE: FREG ), which rose 2.49% or 1.580 points to trade at 65.060 at the close. Volkswagen AG VZO O.N. (DE: VOWG_p ) added 1.81% or 2.94 points to end at 165.54 and Merck KGaA (DE: MRCG ) was up 1.07% or 0.88 points to 83.22 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Commerzbank AG O.N. (DE: CBKG ), which lost 1.15% or 0.148 points to trade at 12.706 in late trade. Thyssenkrupp AG O.N. (DE: TKAG ) declined 0.88% or 0.200 points to end at 22.480 and RWE AG ST O.N. (DE: RWEG ) shed 0.63% or 0.105 points to 16.470.

The top performers on the MDAX were Steinhoff International Holdings NV (DE: SNHG ) which rose 9.93% to 0.41, Stroeer SE (DE: SAXG ) which was up 4.48% to settle at 59.500 and Fielmann AG (DE: FIEG ) which gained 2.75% to close at 69.100.

The worst performers were Schaeffler AG Pref (DE: SHA_p ) which was down 1.56% to 13.21 in late trade, Bilfinger SE O.N. (DE: GBFG ) which lost 1.42% to settle at 36.000 and Zalando SE (DE: ZALG ) which was down 1.28% to 47.21 at the close.

The top performers on the TecDAX were Sartorius AG VZO O.N. (DE: SATG_p ) which rose 3.42% to 111.900, Morphosys AG O.N. (DE: MORG ) which was up 3.18% to settle at 77.950 and Adva Optical Networking SE (DE: ADAG ) which gained 2.47% to close at 6.230.

The worst performers were GFT Technologies AG (DE: GFTG ) which was down 3.07% to 13.280 in late trade, Xing AG (DE: OBCGn ) which lost 2.94% to settle at 264.50 and Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG (DE: O2Dn ) which was down 2.94% to 3.959 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 491 to 240 and 78 ended unchanged on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

The DAX volatility index , which measures the implied volatility of DAX options, was down 4.77% to 17.88.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.19% or 2.50 to $1332.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.01% or 0.64 to hit $64.19 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.82% or 0.55 to trade at $67.59 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.06% to 1.2297, while EUR/GBP rose 0.06% to 0.8810.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.07% at 89.87.