The Frankfurt Stock Exchange XETRA DAX IndexThe Frankfurt Stock Exchange Xetra Dax is the main stock index in Germany. It represents the largest blue chip German companies. As with every major stock exchange, there are several indices. The most prestigious of these in Germany is the Xetra Dax 30. The name is not taken from a sponsor as is the case in several other major exchanges. Instead, the Xetra comes from the electronic trading system and DAX from names of predecessor indices. These were the Deutsche Aktien Xchange 30 and before it the Deutscher Aktien-Index 30. It will be no real surprise to the reader that at the time of writing, the main companies include several car manufacturers (such as BMW) and a number of former state monopolies which have been floated by the German government. These include companies such as Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Borse . Just as with many of the other major indices around the world, Germany has it's own speciality, taking after the home economy. Germany is well regarded as an industrious and productive nation - a country where things are designed and made. This shows through in the index where manufacturing and 'diversified industrials' play a strong role. This is, of course, in stark contrast to other locations where different sectors are much more represented (for example, in London and Hong Kong there are lots of large listed financial companies and in Australia and Canada there are lots of minerals and natural resource companies).
As with most other major exchanges, clearing and custodial services are a major part of the infrastructure. Clearstream conducts the clearing house responsibilities for both the cash market on the exchange and the OTC market (over the counter) for derivative contracts. To give the size and scale of the index some sort of description, there are approximately 10 million transactions concluded in a calendar month (including both securities and derivatives) and the amount of assets under custody is upwards of 10 trillion euro. As might be expected from a leading index, much of the action in other European bourses follows a lead made by Germany. As Europe's powerhouse economy, what happens in Germany often impacts a wide number of other countries. Needless to say, this is also the case in European economic policy, as has been shown repeatedly during the problems faced by the euro in 2010 and 2011. For this reason, German politicians, industrialists, economists and financiers often provide 'leadership' for the rest of Europe and the European Union. The L-DAX index (Late DAX 30) is operated between 17.30 and 20.00 CET. Other related pages which may also be of interest to you include:
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