Germany shares lower at close of trade; DAX down 1.69%

Investing.com – Germany equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Technology , Retail and Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Frankfurt, the DAX declined 1.69%, while the MDAX index declined 1.64%, and the TecDAX index lost 2.65%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the DAX were Vonovia SE (DE: VNAn ), which rose 2.69% or 1.25 points to trade at 47.66 at the close. Heidelbergcement AG O.N. (DE: HEIG ) added 0.46% or 0.320 points to end at 69.720 and Fresenius SE & Co KGAA O.N. (DE: FREG ) was up 0.44% or 0.220 points to 50.520 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Continental AG O.N. (DE: CONG ), which lost 5.47% or 7.77 points to trade at 134.23 in late trade. Allianz SE VNA O.N. (DE: ALVG ) declined 4.87% or 10.18 points to end at 198.82 and Infineon Technologies AG NA O.N. (DE: IFXGn ) shed 4.60% or 0.894 points to 18.538.

The top performers on the MDAX were Prosiebensat 1 Media AG (DE: PSMGn ) which rose 3.30% to 14.6950, LEG Immobilien AG (DE: LEGn ) which was up 2.86% to settle at 107.750 and Rheinmetall AG (DE: RHMG ) which gained 2.27% to close at 101.000.

The worst performers were Metro Wholesale & Food Specialist AG (DE: B4B ) which was down 7.62% to 13.9500 in late trade, Leoni AG (DE: LEOGn ) which lost 6.53% to settle at 17.545 and Drillisch AG (DE: DRIG ) which was down 6.41% to 31.220 at the close.

The top performers on the TecDAX were Freenet AG NA (DE: FNTGn ) which rose 0.74% to 20.430, Medigene NA O.N. (DE: MDG1k ) which was up 0.57% to settle at 8.890 and Telefonica Deutschland Holding AG (DE: O2Dn ) which gained 0.52% to close at 2.876.

The worst performers were SMA Solar Technology AG (DE: S92G ) which was down 7.39% to 20.300 in late trade, Jenoptik AG (DE: JENGn ) which lost 6.57% to settle at 30.550 and Drillisch AG (DE: DRIG ) which was down 6.41% to 31.220 at the close.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 564 to 147 and 62 ended unchanged on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

The DAX volatility index , which measures the implied volatility of DAX options, was up 10.67% to 20.01 a new 3-month high.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.23% or 2.95 to $1284.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.63% or 0.39 to hit $61.73 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.09% or 0.06 to trade at $70.31 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.26% to 1.1220, while EUR/GBP rose 0.15% to 0.8614.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.19% at 97.203.