German shares closer lower tracking Wall Street, credit fears weigh UPDATE

German shares closer lower tracking Wall Street, credit fears weigh UPDATE

	Published : Thu, 16 Aug 2007 17:28 By : Agencies Print this Story

(Updating with full report)

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - Shares closed sharply lower with major German indices tracking a lower opening on Wall Street amid continuing fears the sub-prime crisis may turn into a global credit crunch.

The DAX closed down 175.83 points or 2.36 pct at 7,270.07, after trading in the 7,240.78-7,360.28 range. The MDAX was down 446.49 points or 4.49 pct at 9,508.13, while the TecDAX eased 39.22 or 4.50 pct to 833.10.

DAX futures were down 41.00 points or 0.56 pct at 7,308.00, while bund futures added 0.47 or 0.42 pct to 113.64 points.

The euro was trading at 1.3407 usd, against 1.3408 usd in afternoon London trade.

The US Federal Reserve today injected 12 bln usd into the market in its second open market operation. The 12 bln usd operation followed a 5 bln usd operation earlier this morning.

The move did little to stem short-term fears about a liquidity crunch, however, dealers said.

Today saw no blue chip gainers, with TUI leading large caps lower, declining 1.58 eur or 8.28 pct to 17.51 after M.M. Warburg lowered its target price on the stock to 20 eur from 21 and reiterated its 'hold' stance.

Deutsche Boerse followed, dropping 5.76 eur or 7.16 pct to 74.73.

Car and car parts stocks were mostly lower with MAN down 6.53 eur or 6.38 pct to 95.77, Continental declining 4.70 eur or 4.99 pct to 89.55, and DaimlerChrysler falling 2.91 eur or 4.65 pct to 59.70.

Bucking the trend, Volkswagen outperformed the market, losing 1.08 eur or 0.74 pct to 145.70.

Among outperformers, RWE declined 0.56 eur or 0.69 pct to 80.48 as today's strongest DAX performer.

Allianz was today's third strongest performer, dropping 1.31 eur or 0.85 pct to 152.64, as traders said a support level at 150 eur had kept. On the MDAX, Wacker Chemie fell to the bottom, losing 12.91 eur or 8.72 pct to 135.08.

Hugo Boss was the sole gainer on the index, rising 0.05 eur or 0.12 pct to 43.15.

Aareal Bank was flat at 32.12 after the real estate bank announced it is selling its 66.22 pct stake in Immobilienscout GmbH, one of the leading real estate web sites, for about 357 mln eur.

The sale will result in an additional one-off net profit of 140 mln eur, and the bank raised its target of a return on equity after tax to more than 20 pct, compared to its previous target of 13 pct.

TecDAX-listed Nordex dropped 2.81 eur or 10.68 pct to 23.50, while Rofin Sinar Technologies gained 2.39 eur or 4.65 pct to 53.81.

judith.csaba@thomson.com

jcs/slm/jcs/am

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.