Dizzy DAX heights
May 3, 2013
Traders in Frankfurt saw Germany's leading DAX share index jump precisely two percentage points on Friday, with the week's trading closing an all-time end-of-trading high of 8,122.29.
After trading on July 16, 2007, the DAX shut at the previous record of 8,105.69.
Friday's figure was not, however, the highest level ever attained by the index. On July 13, 2007, the DAX peaked in the middle of trade at 8,151.57, only to drop back out of record territory in the afternoon.
A surprisingly positive US employment report sparked a late rally in an already strong week of trading around the world. Paris' CAC 40 jumped 1.40 percent to 3,912.95 points while London's FTSE was up by almost 1 percent and the key US Dow Jones indicator topped the 15,000 mark for the first time ever early in trade in New York, albeit later to drop just below this milestone.
The European markets were also bolstered on Thursday by the European Central Bank's announcement that it would return its base interest rate to the historic low of 0.5 percent.
Markets are still struggling to return to the levels set during the boom prior to the collapse of the Lehman Brothers bank and the subsequent major world recession. At the time of the previous DAX highs, the IMF's World Economic Outlook was projecting continued global economic growth of 5.2 percent per year.
As the bubble began to show signs of bursting by December of 2007, matters started coming to a head with the fall of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, and the worst recession since the Second World War - sometimes called The Great Recession - followed in 2009.
Sportswear manufacturer Adidas, fresh from announcing quarterly net profits of 308 million euros ($401.2 million), was the DAX's fastest mover, climbing 7.55 percent. Pay-TV giant Sky Deutschland and steel giant ThyssenKrupp both saw their shares jump by more than seven percent, while Continental's stock rose by more than 6 percent and the Salzgitter steel and technology concern logged a 5.48-percent bump.
msh/slk (AFP, AP, Reuters)