Germany shares higher at close of trade; DAX up 1.15%

Investing.com – Germany equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare , Food & Beverages and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Frankfurt, the DAX rose 1.15% to hit a new 1-month high, while the MDAX index added 1.01%, and the TecDAX index added 0.77%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the DAX were Bayer AG NA (DE: BAYGN ), which rose 3.80% or 3.96 points to trade at 108.22 at the close. Merck KGaA (DE: MRCG ) added 3.11% or 2.82 points to end at 93.52 and Volkswagen AG VZO O.N. (DE: VOWG_p ) was up 2.73% or 4.76 points to 179.20 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Deutsche Bank AG NA O.N. (DE: DBKGn ), which lost 5.16% or 0.842 points to trade at 15.490 in late trade. Commerzbank AG O.N. (DE: CBKG ) declined 1.72% or 0.222 points to end at 12.660 and Deutsche Lufthansa AG (DE: LHAG ) shed 1.50% or 0.460 points to 30.260.

The top performers on the MDAX were Steinhoff International Holdings NV (DE: SNHG ) which rose 6.53% to 0.60, Hella KGaA Hueck & Co (DE: HLE ) which was up 4.69% to settle at 54.70 and K+S AG NA O.N. (DE: SDFGn ) which gained 2.86% to close at 21.970.

The worst performers were Fraport AG (DE: FRAG ) which was down 1.41% to 92.620 in late trade, Airbus Group SE (F: AIRG ) which lost 0.50% to settle at 85.720 and Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG (DE: PBBG ) which was down 0.37% to 13.62 at the close.

The top performers on the TecDAX were Adva Optical Networking SE (DE: ADAG ) which rose 6.04% to 7.290, Nordex SE O.N. (DE: NDXG ) which was up 2.54% to settle at 9.458 and Draegerwerk VZO O.N. (DE: DRWG_p ) which gained 2.53% to close at 76.900.

The worst performers were Aixtron SE (DE: AIXGn ) which was down 3.19% to 12.900 in late trade, Evotec AG O.N. (DE: EVTG ) which lost 1.41% to settle at 13.980 and GFT Technologies AG (DE: GFTG ) which was down 1.30% to 13.620 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 542 to 198 and 76 ended unchanged on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

The DAX volatility index , which measures the implied volatility of DAX options, was up 0.43% to 12.28.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.07% or 0.90 to $1322.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.92% or 0.57 to hit $61.44 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.59% or 0.40 to trade at $67.67 a barrel.

EUR/USD was down 0.23% to 1.2039, while EUR/GBP fell 0.34% to 0.8877.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 91.72.