DAX Rises Sharply On Earnings, U.S.-Iran Peace Deal Hopes

(RTTNews) - The German stock market gained good ground in positive territory on Wednesday amid optimism over U.S. and Iran striking a peace deal following U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of a temporary suspension of "Project Freedom" in order to resume negotiations with Iran.

Investors also digested a slew of earnings announcements from leading German companies.

The benchmark DAX was up 648.30 points or 2.65% at 25,040.57 a little while ago.

Continental gained nearly 6% after the company's bottom line totaled EUR200 million, or EUR1.00 per share. This compares with EUR68 million, or EUR0.34 per share, last year.

BMW gained 5.8% after beating earnings estimates, despite reporting a 25% decline in pre-tax profit.

MTU Aero Engines climbed 4.2%. Fresenius Medical Care gained 3.6%. Volkswagen rallied 3.4%, while Mercedes-Benz and Porsche Automobil Holding moved up 2.9% and 2.7%, respectively.

Siemens Healthineers, Commerzbank, Merck, Deutsche Bank and Allianz gained 2%-2.7%.

Heidelberg Materials gained 2.5% despite a drop in earnings. Result from current operations before depreciation and amortisation or RCOBD declined 13% to 484 million euros from 557 million euros last year. The RCOBD margin was 10.7%, down from previous year's 11.8%.

HelloFresh gained 8%. The company reported an adjusted EBITDA or AEBITDA of approximately 24 million euros for the first quarter compared to 58 million euros, a year ago.

Infineon Technologies shed about 2.1%. For the three-month period to March 31, Infineon posted a net income of EUR 301 million, or EUR 0.23 per share, compared with EUR 232 million, or EUR 0.17 per share in the same period last year.

Zalando, Fresenius and Deutsche Boerse are also notably lower.

In economic news, the S&P Global Germany Composite PMI was revised slightly higher to 48.4 in April 2026 from a preliminary estimate of 48.3, down from 51.9 in March, signalling a contraction in private sector activity for the first time since May 2025.

The Services PMI reading recorded its sharpest contraction in nearly three and a half years, coming in at 46.9 in April, dropping from 50.9 in March. Meanwhile, manufacturing continued to expand, albeit at a slower pace (51.4 vs 52.2).