BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The German stock market's key index DAX gained marginal ground in positive territory Monday morning, supported by gains in the banking sector. The mood in the market remained cautious with investors looking ahead to the minutes of the Federal Reserve's most recent monetary policy meeting.
Trading volumes were thin amid a lack of fresh data, and due to a holiday in the United States for Presidents' Day.
The DAX was up 27.81 points or 0.12% at 24,931.20 a few minutes before noon.
Heidelberg Materials climbed 2.3%. Bank stocks Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, both gained about 2%. Allianz, Deutsche Telekom, Scout24 and Zalando advanced 1.3%-1.5%.
Fresenius, Siemens Energy, Rheinmetall, Vonovia and Deutsche Post posted modest gains.
Siemens shed 2.7%. Merck, Symrise and Brenntag lost 1.8%, 1.7% and 1.6%, respectively, while BASF, Infineon Technologies, Qiagen, Deutsche Boerse, SAP and MTU Aero Engines drifted down 0.6%-1%.
Volkswagen, which gained some ground in positive territory on reports it plans to cut costs by 20% across all brands by the end of 2028, gave up gains subsequently and was down marginally a little before noon.
Data from Eurostat showed Eurozone industrial production declined for the first time in four months in December, falling by 1.4%, in contrast to the 0.3% increase in November.
The year-on-year increase in industrial production eased to 1.2% in December, from 2.2% in November. A similar pace of slower growth was last reported in August 2025.
In the EU27, industrial production dropped at a faster pace of 0.8% on a monthly basis after falling 0.1% in November. Compared to last year, production was up 1.4%, but weaker than the November's 2% gain.
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