Investing.com – Germany equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare, Chemicals and Telecoms sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Frankfurt, the DAX added 0.36% to hit a new 52-week high, while the MDAX index climbed 0.07%, and the TecDAX index climbed 0.66%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the DAX were Bayer AG NA (DE:BAYGN), which rose 2.11% or 2.200 points to trade at 106.450 at the close. Fresenius Medical Care KGAA ST (DE:FMEG) added 1.92% or 1.440 points to end at 76.320 and Merck KGaA (DE:MRCG) was up 1.48% or 1.500 points to 102.800 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Thyssenkrupp AG O.N. (DE:TKAG), which lost 1.30% or 0.315 points to trade at 23.950 in late trade. Daimler AG NA O.N. (DE:DAIGn) declined 1.09% or 0.790 points to end at 71.560 and Volkswagen AG VZO O.N. (DE:VOWG_p) shed 0.91% or 1.400 points to 152.500.
The top performers on the MDAX were Jungheinrich AG O.N.VZO (DE:JUNG_p) which rose 2.68% to 28.880, Wacker Chemie O.N. (DE:WCHG) which was up 2.05% to settle at 114.300 and STADA Arzneimittel VNA O.N. (DE:STAGn) which gained 1.85% to close at 47.555.
The worst performers were K+S AG NA O.N. (DE:SDFGn) which was down 3.38% to 23.990 in late trade, Schaeffler AG Pref (DE:SHA_p) which lost 2.01% to settle at 15.35 and Leoni AG (DE:LEOGn) which was down 1.98% to 38.400 at the close.
The top performers on the TecDAX were STRATEC Biomedical AG (DE:SBSG) which rose 4.09% to 48.400, Morphosys AG O.N. (DE:MORG) which was up 3.57% to settle at 50.350 and Qiagen NV (DE:QGEN) which gained 2.46% to close at 26.415.
The worst performers were Siltronic AG (DE:WAFGn) which was down 1.02% to 51.370 in late trade, Slm Solution G (DE:AM3D) which lost 0.92% to settle at 34.55 and Nemetschek AG O.N. (DE:NEKG) which was down 0.90% to 52.760 at the close.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 442 to 321 and 32 ended unchanged on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
The DAX volatility index, which measures the implied volatility of DAX options, was down 0.63% to 14.97.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.91% or 10.95 to $1186.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 2.24% or 1.18 to hit $53.93 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 2.41% or 1.33 to trade at $56.41 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.71% to 1.0675, while EUR/GBP fell 0.32% to 0.8479.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.66% at 100.57.