After Friday's sell-off, bank stocks started Monday's trading well recovered. Deutsche Bank's paper rose by 7 percent at its peak, and Commerzbank was also clearly in the plus.

Archibald Preuschat

Editor in Business

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Concerns about a deeper financial crisis have just caused Deutsche Bank shares to plunge by up to 15 percent on Friday. Commerzbank's securities also fell significantly. This also pushed the German benchmark index Dax below the psychologically important mark of 15,000 points at the end of the week.

Banks grow strongly at the start of trading

On Monday, all that seemed to be forgotten. The Dax started Xetra trading at 15,140 points. Deutsche Bank's securities rose sharply in the first few minutes of trading amid high turnover.

A share of Germany's largest commercial bank was temporarily worth 9.08 euros, but then the price dropped again to approach the 9 euro mark again towards the end of the second hour of trading. The situation was similar with Commerzbank, whose shares reached a daily high of 9.34 after leaving trading at 8.98 euros on Friday.

The purchase of Silicon Valley Bank by the US bank First Citizens Bancshares was also well received. First Citizens' shares listed in the U.S. are trading more than 10 percent higher in pre-market trading. The Frankfurt-listed US regional banks Pacific West and Keycorp rose by around 16 percent and 10 percent respectively.

Credit default swaps remain at a very high level

But there were also warnings of exaggerated optimism. "Banks' credit default swaps (CDS) are only slightly below levels at the height of the 2013 European debt crisis," said Naeem Aslam, chief investor at asset manager Zaye, according to Reuters. If these do not normalize, the stock market will continue to suffer for several days."

However, investors hardly reacted to the surprising rise in the Ifo business climate index in March. The Ifo index rose to 93.3 points from 91.1 points in the previous month. A decline to 91.0 points was expected.

The Dax was up 1 percent at 15,106 points in the third hour of trading. The European benchmark index Euro Stoxx 50 gained 0.7 percent to 4159 points.