Investing.com – Germany equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare, Chemicals and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Frankfurt, the DAX added 1.11%, while the MDAX index climbed 0.01%, and the TecDAX index added 0.70%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the DAX were Fresenius SE & Co KGAA O.N. (XETRA:FREG), which rose 2.69% or 1.490 points to trade at 56.790 at the close. Bayer AG NA (XETRA:BAYGN) added 2.28% or 2.850 points to end at 128.050 and Deutsche Boerse NA O.N. (XETRA:DB1Gn) was up 2.23% or 1.610 points to 73.800 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Deutsche Bank AG NA O.N. (XETRA:DBKGn), which lost 1.79% or 0.495 points to trade at 27.180 in late trade. Infineon Technologies AG NA O.N. (XETRA:IFXGn) declined 1.00% or 0.115 points to end at 11.410 and SAP AG O.N. (XETRA:SAPG) shed 0.64% or 0.410 points to 64.100.
The top performers on the MDAX were Wincor Nixdorf O.N. (XETRA:WING) which rose 2.54% to 37.120, Salzgitter AG O.N. (XETRA:SZGG) which was up 1.44% to settle at 32.470 and Aurubis AG (XETRA:NAFG) which gained 1.41% to close at 52.440.
The worst performers were Bilfinger SE O.N. (XETRA:GBFG) which was down 14.06% to 32.220 in late trade, Gagfah SA Nom. (XETRA:GFJG) which lost 4.85% to settle at 12.075 and Suedzucker Mannheim Ochsenfurt AG (XETRA:SZUG) which was down 4.13% to 15.200 at the close.
The top performers on the TecDAX were Adva Optical Networking SE (XETRA:ADAG) which rose 8.26% to 7.183, Stratec Biomedical (XETRA:SBSG) which was up 3.01% to settle at 46.870 and LPKF Laser & Electronics (XETRA:LPKG) which gained 2.71% to close at 8.368.
The worst performers were Aixtron SE NA O.N. (XETRA:AIXGn) which was down 2.32% to 6.618 in late trade, PSI AG F.Pr.U.Sys. NA (XETRA:PSAGn) which lost 2.06% to settle at 10.445 and Xing AG (XETRA:OBCGn) which was down 1.88% to 143.900 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 387 to 353 and 38 ended unchanged on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
The DAX volatility index, which measures the implied volatility of DAX options, was down 4.10% to 24.34.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 1.94% or 22.80 to $1199.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.46% or 0.28 to hit $60.61 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.35% or 0.23 to trade at $64.09 a barrel.
EUR/USD was up 0.52% to 1.1397, while EUR/GBP rose 0.25% to 0.7178.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.45% at 94.06.