DAX Firmly In Positive Territory Despite Paring Some Early Gains

(RTTNews) - German stocks climbed higher on Friday amid renewed hopes of a U.S.-Iran peace deal thanks to signs of progress in negotiations.

Still, both sides are at odds over Tehran's uranium stockpile and future control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Data showing an improvement in German consumer sentiment and a slightly faster pace of economic growth aided sentiment.

The benchmark DAX, which surged to 24,866.44 earlier, pared some gains subsequently, and was up 74.05 points or 0.3% at 24,730.81 about half an hour before noon.

Infineon Technologies climbed nearly 4%. Deutsche Post gained 3.5% and Symrise moved up 2.7%. Zalando advanced 2.1%.

Adidas gained 1.6% after Deckers Outdoor forecast annual sales and profit above Wall Street estimates.

Merck, Continental, Rheinmetall, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens and Porsche Automobil Holding gained 1%-1.5%. RWE, MTU Aero Engines and Henkel also moved higher.

Vonovia drifted down 4.8%. Fresenius Medical Care dropped 4.7%, and Scout24 eased by about 3.4%. Fresenius and Brenntag lost 2.1% and 1.4%, respectively. Munich RE, Deutsche Bank, Daimler Truck Holding and BASF also drifted lower.

German consumer sentiment is set to improve in June driven by rising income expectations and willingness to buy but the war in the Middle East continues to cloud the outlook, latest results of the NIM Consumer Climate powered by GfK showed.

The consumer confidence index rose unexpectedly to -29.8 points in June from -33.1 points in May. The score was expected to fall to -33.7.

Despite an improvement in the economic expectations index, the majority of consumers still expect the economic situation to deteriorate over the coming twelve months. The economic expectations index climbed to -11.2 in May from -13.7 in the prior month.

Consumers expect prices to rise over the coming twelve months but the indicator dropped 5.4 points to -0.4 in May. The decline reflects the reduction in the energy tax on diesel and gasoline.

Data from Destatis showed the German economy expanded at a slightly faster pace in the first quarter, as previously estimated. Gross domestic product grew 0.3% from a quarter ago, unrevised from the previous estimate and followed fourth quarter's 0.2% expansion.

On a yearly basis, GDP registered a calendar-adjusted growth of 0.4%, which was slightly faster than the initial estimate of 0.3%.

At the same time, the statistical office confirmed that price-adjusted GDP logged a steady annual growth of 0.5% in the first quarter.