DAX Down Nearly 0.5%; Defense Stocks Lose Ground

(RTTNews) - The German market slipped into negative territory Thursday morning, weighed down by losses in defense stocks amid ongoing Ukraine peace talks and expectations that U.S.-Iran talks will yield positive results.

Investors also reacted to a slew of earnings updates and regional economic data, while awaiting the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement due later in the day.

The benchmark DAX, which tumbled to 24,434.99, recovered some lost ground and was 108.91 points or 0.44% at 24,543.86 about half an hour before noon.

Defense stock Rheinmetall tumbled 8%. Renk fell 2.7%, and Hendsoldt shed about 2.5%.

Volkswagen, Continental, BMW, RWE, E.ON, Siemens Energy, Porsche Automobil Holding and Mercedes Benz lost 2%-3%.

BASF, Siemens Healthineers, Daimler Truck Holding, Fresenius, Bayer, Allianz, Vonovia, Deutsche Post and Deutsche Bank posted moderate losses.

Among the gainers, SAP climbed 3.25% and Deutsche Bank moved up 2.75%. Zalando, GEA Group, Heidelberg Materials and Siemens advanced 0.6%-1%.

German factory orders grew the most in two years in December, driven by the surge in large-scale orders, official data revealed Thursday.

Factory orders advanced unexpectedly by 7.8% from November, Destatis reported. This was the biggest growth since December 2023 and confounded expectations for a fall of 1.8%. The statistical office revised up November's growth to 5.7% from 5.6%.

Germany's construction activity returned to contraction in January after rising for the first time in almost four years in December, survey data from S&P Global showed. The HCOB construction Purchasing Managers' index posted 44.7 in January, down from 50.3 in December.

A score below 50.0 indicates contraction. The reading signaled that the sector shrank at the fastest rate in three months.