German stocks were off to a shaky start on Wednesday, with the benchmark DAX index decreasing by 57.47 points, or 0.43 percent, opening at 13,224.27 points, reports Xinhua. The biggest winner among Germany's 30 largest listed companies at the start of trading was building materials producer Heidelberg Cement, increasing 0.50 percent, followed by dialysis specialist Fresenius Medical Care (FMC) with 0.28 percent and Chip manufacturer Infineon with 0.25 percent. On Wednesday, Infineon announced its first quarter (Q1) results recording a decrease in revenues by 7 percent to 1.9 billion euros (2.1 billion U.S. dollars).
Margins were lower year-on-year at 15.5 percent but had developed "positively" and were above the forecasted 13 percent. Following the announcement, shares of Infineon shot up by than 6 percent and were the clear winner of the DAX on early trading on Wednesday. At around 21.5 euros, shares of Infineon have gone up by around 50 percent in the last 8 months after hitting a three-year low of 14 euros in the first half of 2019.
Shares of MTU Aero Engines fell by 2.38. The aircraft engine manufacturer was the biggest loser at the start of trading on Wednesday after U.S. bank JP Morgan downgraded MTU from Overweight to Neutral and lowered the target price from 300 to 265 euros. According to JP Morgan analyst David Perry, some suppliers to the European civil aerospace industry would face short-term challenges and airlines are likely to report weaker results.
German technology giant Siemens also announced its Q1 results for the fiscal year 2019/2020 on Wednesday. While revenues decreased by 1 percent to 20.3 billion euros, adjusted earnings plummeted by 30 percent to 1.4 billion euros.
Siemens chief executive officer Joe Kaeser confirmed that the company's energy business would be individually listed on the German stock exchange as Siemens Energy by September. Following the announcement, shares of Siemens decreased by 1.49 percent. The euro was trading almost unchanged at 1.1184 dollars, increasing slightly by 0.02 percent on Wednesday morning.
