Frankfurt (Reuters) - At the end of the week, the Dax barely made any headway. The leading German index recorded a mini gain of 0.1 percent to 16,985 points on Friday, while the EuroStoxx50 stood still. Jürgen Molnar from RoboMarkets commented that the DAX continues to bite its teeth out at the 17,000 hurdle. Thomas Altmann from QC Partners also stated: "The tailwind from Wall Street alone is not enough to climb to new highs. "The DAX needs its own energy in the form of positive news."

The leading German index recently reached a record high of 17,049.52 points on Tuesday. Positively received consolidated financial statements and the announcement of new measures to stabilize the stock markets in China provided a boost.

BEIERSDORF WEAKENS AFTER L'OREAL FIGURES

At the end of the week, the German stock market was rather quieter in terms of balance sheets. However, some DAX stocks reacted to figures presented by their competitors abroad. Beiersdorf, for example, was one of the biggest DAX losers with a discount of 1.3 percent. According to traders, fourth-quarter sales at rival L'Oreal were below market expectations. L'Oreal shares fell by more than five percent. RWE and E.ON also fell by around 1.3 percent each after the Austrian utility Verbund expressed caution for 2024. The market expectations for earnings in the 2024 financial year were set far too high, Verbund explained.

Delivery Hero was the talk of the MDax. The shares fell by 6.5 percent at times. According to a media report, the two largest ride-hailing companies in Southeast Asia have resumed their merger negotiations. Grab is discussing various options with GoTo, wrote the news agency "Bloomberg", citing insiders. The two companies are not limited to ride-hailing services alone. Users can also use the respective apps to carry out financial transactions or have restaurant meals and groceries delivered. This threatens to intensify competition for Delivery Hero's Southeast Asian subsidiary, stock market analysts said. It would also make the planned sale of this division more difficult.

On the bond markets, rising yields on government bonds kept investors on their toes. At 2.389 percent, the yield on ten-year German bonds rose to its highest level since the beginning of December. Recently, speculation that the European Central Bank (ECB) would rapidly lower interest rates had subsided somewhat, as several leading monetary authorities still believe that more clarity needs to be gained on the path of inflation. In the meantime, a move downwards at the interest rate meeting in April is only assessed as having a probability of around 48% on the money market. As recently as January, an initial interest rate cut in April was at times firmly priced in. The euro was slightly weaker at 1.0766 dollars. The dollar index was flat at 104.21 points.

(Report by: Daniela Pegna, edited by Ralf Banser. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)