Investing.com – Germany equities were mixed at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare, Retail and Consumer & Cyclical sectors propelled shares higher while losses in the Technology, Utilities and Construction sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Frankfurt, the DAX lost 0.53%, while the MDAX index declined 0.04%, and the TecDAX index climbed 0.56%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the DAX were Fresenius Medical Care KGAA ST (DE:FMEG), which rose 1.56% or 1.300 points to trade at 84.840 at the close. Henkel & Co KGaA AG Pref (DE:HNKG_p) added 1.35% or 1.45 points to end at 108.70 and Merck KGaA (DE:MRCG) was up 1.32% or 1.16 points to 89.04 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Volkswagen AG VZO O.N. (DE:VOWG_p), which lost 3.69% or 5.62 points to trade at 146.60 in late trade. Continental AG O.N. (DE:CONG) declined 3.63% or 7.15 points to end at 189.85 and Infineon Technologies AG NA O.N. (DE:IFXGn) shed 3.09% or 0.700 points to 21.960.
The top performers on the MDAX were Metro AG (DE:MEOG) which rose 3.16% to 7.246, Osram Licht AG (DE:OSRn) which was up 2.93% to settle at 39.30 and Rocket Internet (DE:RKET) which gained 2.09% to close at 30.34.
The worst performers were Schaeffler AG Pref (DE:SHA_p) which was down 5.08% to 11.12 in late trade, Leoni AG (DE:LEOGn) which lost 3.53% to settle at 42.030 and Hella KGaA Hueck & Co (DE:HLE) which was down 2.68% to 49.00 at the close.
The top performers on the TecDAX were Dialog Semiconductor (DE:DLGS) which rose 8.32% to 16.070, Qiagen NV (DE:QIA) which was up 4.82% to settle at 32.485 and Carl Zeiss Meditec AG (DE:AFXG) which gained 2.18% to close at 67.900.
The worst performers were SMA Solar Technology AG (DE:S92G) which was down 5.43% to 34.160 in late trade, SLM Solutions Group AG (DE:AM3D) which lost 2.83% to settle at 24.00 and Pfeiffer Vacuum Technology O.N. (DE:PV) which was down 2.71% to 136.60 at the close.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 423 to 293 and 62 ended unchanged on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
The DAX volatility index, which measures the implied volatility of DAX options, was up 3.48% to 15.59.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.49% or 6.00 to $1217.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 1.51% or 1.04 to hit $67.72 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 2.08% or 1.54 to trade at $72.67 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.21% to 1.1667, while EUR/GBP fell 0.17% to 0.8894.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 94.45.