DAX Moderately Higher; Henkel Tanks 9% After Results, Guidance

(RTTNews) - German stocks up firmly in positive territory Tuesday morning, recovering well from previous session's losses, as investors shrug off concerns about trade war for now, and focus on earnings and look ahead to key U.S. inflation data due on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, there is some uncertainty about the proposed debt-finance package, as Germany's Green party rejected it, potentially imperiling the flagship policy of chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz.

Merz, who is assembling a coalition to succeed Chancellor Olaf Scholz after winning last month's election, needs Green support to secure a two-thirds majority required for a constitutional amendment to ease borrowing restrictions.

The benchmark DAX, which climbed to 22,836.74 earlier, was up 140.91 points or 0.62% at 22,748.06 a little while ago.

Volkswagen is up 2.5% after the group reported a 3% drop in sales in fiscal year 2024. Sales revenue increased by 1% to 325 billion euros, and operating income dropped 15% to 19.1 billion euros in fiscal 2024.

The group expects the sales revenue to exceed the previous year's figure by up to 5%. The operating return on sales for the Group is expected to be between 5.5 and 6.5%.

Bayer is gaining about 4%. Rheinmetall is up nearly 4%, while MTU Aero Engines, Siemens Energy, Infineon, BMW and Sartorius are advancing 2.3 to 3.2%.

Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Hannover Rueck, Siemens Healthineers, Continental, BASF and Munech Rueck are up 1 to 1.8%. Vonoia, Siemens, Allianz, Merck and E.ON are also notably higher.

Henkel is down more than 9% after the company's fourth-quarter sales fell short of expectations. The German chemical and consumer goods firm reported group sales growth of 1.1% for the quarter, substantially down from the expected growth of 3.6%.

Henkel expects organic sales growth of 1.5 - 3.5% for fiscal year 2025.

Henkel reported that its net income attributable to shareholders for fiscal year 2024 increased to 2.007 billion euros or 4.78 euros per share from 1.318 billion euros or 3.13 euros per share in the prior year.

Commerzbank, Daimler Truck Holding, SAP, Symrise and Adidas are down 0.4 to 1.2%.