Germany shares higher at close of trade; DAX up 0.54%

Investing.com – Germany equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare , Insurance and Retail sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Frankfurt, the DAX added 0.54%, while the MDAX index gained 0.55%, and the TecDAX index added 0.01%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the DAX were Bayer AG NA (DE: BAYGN ), which rose 2.54% or 2.45 points to trade at 98.84 at the close. Linde AG 1 (DE: LIN1 ) added 2.34% or 4.7000 points to end at 205.3000 and Muench. Rueckvers. VNA O.N. (DE: MUVGn ) was up 1.87% or 3.30 points to 179.80 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Infineon Technologies AG NA O.N. (DE: IFXGn ), which lost 2.45% or 0.580 points to trade at 23.110 in late trade. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (DE: BMWG ) declined 1.12% or 0.910 points to end at 80.310 and Deutsche Boerse AG (DE: DB1Gn ) shed 0.82% or 0.950 points to 114.350.

The top performers on the MDAX were Jungheinrich AG O.N.VZO (DE: JUNG_p ) which rose 3.82% to 31.560, Rocket Internet (DE: RKET ) which was up 2.36% to settle at 26.92 and MTU Aero Engines NA O.N. (DE: MTXGn ) which gained 2.01% to close at 162.80.

The worst performers were Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG (DE: PBBG ) which was down 7.24% to 12.17 in late trade, Duerr AG (DE: DUEG ) which lost 4.83% to settle at 43.150 and Salzgitter AG (DE: SZGG ) which was down 3.23% to 39.840 at the close.

The top performers on the TecDAX were Isra Vision O.N. (DE: ISRG ) which rose 5.74% to 53.40, Morphosys AG O.N. (DE: MORG ) which was up 2.44% to settle at 104.900 and Evotec AG O.N. (DE: EVTG ) which gained 2.05% to close at 15.165.

The worst performers were Siltronic AG (DE: WAFGn ) which was down 3.07% to 127.750 in late trade, SMA Solar Technology AG (DE: S92G ) which lost 2.17% to settle at 37.880 and Software AG (DE: SOWGn ) which was down 2.11% to 40.300 at the close.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 393 to 327 and 62 ended unchanged on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

The DAX volatility index , which measures the implied volatility of DAX options, was down 9.72% to 15.82.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.02% or 0.20 to $1270.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 4.59% or 3.01 to hit $68.55 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 2.45% or 1.79 to trade at $74.84 a barrel.

EUR/USD was up 0.30% to 1.1638, while EUR/GBP rose 0.14% to 0.8775.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.21% at 94.34.