FRANKFURT (AFX) - German shares were lower midday in relatively quiet pre-Christmas trade pulled down by some profit-taking, negative closes on both Wall Street and the Nikkei indices, dealers said.
At 12.00 pm, the DAX 30 index was 48.43 points, or 0.73 pct, lower at 6,548.82, after moving between a low of 6,529.12 and a high of 6,573.01 this session.
The MDAX dropped 84.32 points, or 0.91 pct, at 9,227.09, while the TecDAX fell 8.21 points, or 1.11 pct, to 731.49.
The DAX futures contract was at 6,573.50, down 1.5 points or 0.02 pct, while bund futures were 118.56, up 0.12 or 0.10 pct.
The euro last traded at 1.3165 usd, against 1.3163 usd in morning London trade.
'Many investors have already closed their books for the season resulting in visibly lower trade volumes,' said one Frankfurt-based trader.
'In addition, the DAX is correcting a bit after a long, upward streak and some investors are selling now to benefit from the trend,' he added.
Allianz led blue chips lower, dropping 2.19 eur, or 1.40 pct, to 154.14.
Hypo Real Estate fell 0.63 eur, or 1.31 pct, to 47.36.
ThyssenKrupp eased 0.40 eur, or 1.19 pct, to 33.21, as dealers pointed to profit-taking after strong gains throughout the month.
MDAX-listed peer Salzgitter dropped 3.35 eur, or 3.34 pct, to 97.00, after Credit Suisse lowered its rating for the steel company to 'Neutral' from 'Outperform' but maintained its price target of 100 eur per share.
Credit Suisse based its downgrade on the fact that Salzgitter now trades relatively close to the brokerage's target price.
UBS, meanwhile, raised its target price for ThyssenKrupp to 33.60 eur per share from 29.00.
The investment house said it sees significant earnings upgrades for the German steel giant with UBS analysts raising their full-year pre-tax earnings forecast 10 pct to 2.96 bln eur.
SAP lost 0.83 eur, or 0.52 pct, to 158.60, following the release of rather disappointing second-quarter results from US rival Oracle yesterday, dealers said.
'The market was clearly expecting another brilliant set of figures. The numbers were solid, but show an easing compared to last year's record-setting performance,' said a trader.
'The fear is that Oracle's drop in license revenues is not isolated, but a trend which SAP may follow,' he added.
But analysts at both Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse said the drop in Oracle's licenses should actually be seen as a small plus for SAP.
'We believe that the slowdown in Oracle license revenues was largely due to a market share loss to SAP, ' said Mathew Hammond from Credit Suisse.
Merrill Lynch analysts said they see an end to speculation, mainly coming out of the US investor base, that Oracle is now gaining market share back from SAP.
Deutsche Telekom lost 0.03 eur, or 0.22 pct, to 13.80, but outperformed the market, after Deutsche Bank lifted its rating for the telecommunications giant to 'buy' from 'hold' and raised its price target to 15.50 eur per share from 12.90, dealers said.
In a note to clients, Deutsche Bank said that decreased taxes and effective cost-cutting measures are the main reasons for the upgrade.
The brokerage said that changes in the German tax system due from Jan 1 may add up to 500 mln eur per year to cash flow forecasts.
Bucking the negative trend, Volkswagen was one of only two gainers, adding 0.22 eur, or 0.26 pct, to 84.88.
Adidas was close on its heels, moving up 0.05 eur, or 0.13 pct, to 37.81.
On the MDAX, Salzgitter was the sharpest decliner, while Rhoen-Klinikum lifted 0.27 eur, or 0.76 pct, to 35.79, after the clinic operator raised its 2006 net profit forecast to 106 mln eur from 93 mln due to a one-time positive effect from changes to the German tax code.
Singulus dropped 0.53 eur, or 4.38 pct, to 11.57, making it the biggest faller on the Tec-DAX. Nordex climbed 0.35 eur, or 2.69 pct, to 13.36 after it increased its 2007 revenues forecast by 50 pct to 750 mln eur due to strong demand. Tyler.Sitte@afxnews.com ts/vb COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2006. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited
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