DAX Down Slightly; Economic Data In Focus

(RTTNews) - German stocks moved in tight range Friday morning with investors digesting the nation's retail sales and import prices data and looking ahead to consumer price inflation report and unemployment data, due later in the day.

Activity is mostly stock specific and traders appear to be preferring to take some profits following recent gains.

The DAX was down 9.22 points or 0.04% at 23,768.57 about half an hour before noon.

Deutsche Boerse shares gained nearly 2%. The German stock exchange operator said it is in exclusive talks to acquire European fund distribution platform Allfunds Group Plc in a €5.3 billion ($6.1 billion) cash and stock deal.

Infineon Technologies was up 1.3%, while Siemens Energy, Volkswagen, BASF and Symrise posted modest gains.

Delivery Hero soared 10%. The food delivery company is facing pressure from several major shareholders to consider selling the company or divesting parts of its business.

Daimler Truck Holding drifted lower by about 1.7%. Hannover Rueck, Fresenius, Rheinmetall, Deutsche Post, Munich RE, Bayer and Allianz were down 0.5 to 1%.

Data from Destatis showed German retail sales dropped unexpectedly in October, decreasing by 0.3% month-on-month, offsetting the 0.3% increase in September. Economists had forecast a monthly increase of 0.1%.

However, on a yearly basis, retail sales grew 0.9% in October, slightly faster than the 0.8% increase in September.

In nominal terms, retail sales dropped 0.1% from September but increased 2.4% from a year ago.

Germany's import prices slid 1.4% in October from a year ago, after falling 1% in September, a separate data from Destatis showed. Prices have been falling since April.

The annual fall was largely driven by the 15.1% decline in energy prices. Moreover, prices of capital goods and consumer goods were down 0.5% and 1%, respectively.

Month-on-month, import and export prices moved up 0.2% each in October.