Shortly after Commerzbank's ascent to the Dax for Linde, there is another change in the German benchmark index. The Düsseldorf-based arms manufacturer Rheinmetall will take Fresenius Medical Care's place in the Dax from March 20. This was announced by Deutsche Börse late Friday evening.
Daniel Mohr
Editor in business.
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The stock exchange thus follows its "fast entry" rule, according to which a company rises into the 40-stock index if it has climbed to at least 33rd place in the most recent ranking according to the market value of freely tradable shares. Rheinmetall achieved this after being in 37th place in January. Rheinmetall's share price doubled immediately after the war began in Ukraine. Since the beginning of the year, it has risen by around a third.
Rheinmetall replaces the currently lowest ranked DAX stock. This is the healthcare group Fresenius Medical Care, which was included in the DAX for Hoechst in 1999. Rheinmetall is not the first arms manufacturer in the Dax. Airbus also earns part of its money with armaments. The debate about a sustainable Dax and whether this can be reconciled with armaments is therefore not new for the stock market.
Armament is also in demand in the second series of stock exchanges
Especially since an armaments company will also join the M-Dax, Hensoldt AG from Taufkirchen, south of Munich, which went public in 2020. Here, too, the beginning of the war in Ukraine had caused a doubling of the exchange rate. Since the beginning of the year, the share price has gained new momentum by 50 percent. Nevertheless, the valuation is still moderate with a price-earnings ratio of 13.
Thüringer Jenoptik AG is also new to the M-Dax. It also counts the defense industry among its customers, but is also active in many other areas with laser sensors, optics, optoelectronics, mechanics and electronics, for example as a supplier to the semiconductor industry. Vereinigte Bioenergie Verbio from Leipzig and Darmstadt-based Software AG have to leave the M-Dax. Both stocks had recently performed very weakly.
In the Tec-Dax, the Berlin-based radiation technology specialist Eckert+Ziegler is moving up for the Swabian battery manufacturer Varta, whose share has moved very far away from previous highs. In the S-Dax, the Mannheim-based bioethanol producer Cropenergies has to give way to the Stuttgart-based building society and financial group Wüstenrot&Württembergische AG.