DAX (Frankfurt) German Stock market overview Week: 14, 2/04/2012 5/04/2012

The DAX market index during this week declined by 2.44% which and reached 6775.26 points. Nevertheless, this was only a four-day week due to the Good Friday. Also the next market opening will be only on Tuesday because of Easter. Biggest gainers of the week were: Adidas AG, Deutsche Boerse AG and Beiersdorf AG. Biggest losers were: Deutsche Bank AG, Metro AG and Commerzbank AG. The overall turnover was 13.61 billion euro.

Figure 1: DAX index change during week 13. Source: finance.yahoo.com

The best performer of week 14 was a sports apparel manufacturer Adidas AG (ADSd), whose stock price climbed 2.3% during the week. On Monday ADSd positively continued last weeks trends and jumped 4.39% to 61.11 per share. Yet on two next days there was a downward pressure on the stock price as series of negative news entered the market. ADSds unit Reebok was blocked from selling t-shirts with Tim Tebows name. On Thursday price rebounded and closed this week at 59.41, as U.S. retailer Dick's Sporting Goods Inc reported to be investing around 25 million in Britains JJB Sports, whose key supplier is Adidas AG. Still, investors should keep an eye on ADSd due to its CEOs claim that the companys profitability should rise as they will cut product range by 25%, in order to reduce costs. According to CEO, by 2015 Adidas AG will undertake position of market leader Nike. The second biggest gainer with an increase of 1.88% in share prices during the week was Deutsche Boerse (DB1d), a marketplace organizer. Upward pressure might be put by the decision made on 2nd of April of Indian regulators to allow domestic bourses to list themselves on other exchanges, thus allowing more investors to join the likes of DB1d. In addition, despite the failed merger with NYSE Euronext, DB1d will pursue alliances with peers looking for partnerships and cooperation, informed the CEO. Commerzbank AG (CBKd), the week`s biggest faller, dropped 5.76 % this week. High fuel prices and falling cargo transporting rates leave many shipping companies struggling to pay their creditors, on Wednesday it was announced that Commerzbank AG may face shipping-loan losses of 441 million this year. Share price dropped by 3.47 % that day. On Thursday the bank sued a unit of Credit Agricole SA claiming that it owed approximately 55

million as a result of the termination of credit-linked notes transactions. Commerzbank shares decreased 3.5% to 1.78. METRO AG (MEOd) which is retailer based in Germany once again was one of the biggest fallers in share price. This week METRO AG share price dropped by 5.25%; from 27.96 to 27.35. The cause of the drop in share price hasnt changed since the last week; the oil prices keep increasing, which is affecting households more severely, therefore building up disbelief in solution of euro zone crisis. Deutsche Bank (DBKd) was the third biggest faller this week on the Xetra Dax, declining 4.78 % in total. Bankss fall on Tuesday by 1.1 % was compounded by a downgrade from Macquarie (investment banking and diversified financial services group), which cut the stock from neutral to underperform. On Wednesday it fell 1.3 % more. Despite the growth on Monday, it was the third week when the index has declined. The downward pressure was put by renewed concerns about the euro areas debt crisis, raising price of oil and falling industrial output in Germany. However, it is hard to say whether next week will be the fourth week of decline. If Spain doesnt stick to its budget deficit target and Italys bonds still will fall in value, and Germanys output will continue to shrink, it might be the case.

Agris Tolanicins Andrejs Semjonovs Dairis Zari Vadim Vladykin