NEW DELHI (dpa-AFX) - German stocks rallied on Wednesday as signs of recovery in global manufacturing activity helped investors shrug off weak retail sales data.
The benchmark DAX climbed 259 points, or 1.98 percent, to 13,231 after rising 0.2 percent on Tuesday.
Multinational conglomerate Siemens jumped 2.2 percent, steelmaker ThyssenKrupp added 1.8 percent and chemical company BASF advanced 2 percent.
Banks Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank were flat to slightly higher as Germany started the sale of its first ever green bond.
Automaker Daimler rose about 1 percent and Volkswagen added 0.7 percent as the euro fell further below $1.20, a level it breached for the first time in over two years on Tuesday.
Evotec SE rose over 2 percent. The drug discovery and development company has announced a partnership agreement with the University of Oxford regarding access to biospecimens from the biobank Quality in Organ Donation.
In economic news, German retail sales declined for a second straight month in July, defying expectations for a rebound after the coronavirus pandemic-related lockdown curbs were eased, preliminary data from the Federal Statistical Office showed.
Retail sales fell 0.9 percent month-on-month, while economists had forecast a 0.5 percent increase. The decline for June was revised to 1.9 percent from 1.6 percent. On a year-on-year basis, retail sales grew 4.2 percent in July after a 6.7 percent gain in June, which was revised from 5.9 percent.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2020 AFX News
