FRANKFURT, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- German stocks edged up on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve lowered interest rate for the first time in a decade. The benchmark DAX index went up 64.11 points, or 0.53 percent, to close at 12,253.15 points.
The benchmark index went through quite a roller coaster ride in Thursday's trading, opening weak before climbing to 12,254.03 points around noon. It opened again lower in afternoon's trading but adjusted to close 0.53 percent higher.
Major European markets finished mixed. France's CAC 40 went up 0.70 percent and the FTSE 100 fell 0.03 percent with no cut from the BOE and amid Brexit uncertainties.
The Fed trimmed the target for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to a range of 2 percent to 2.25 percent after concluding its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell noted the move is "not the beginning of a long series of rate cuts," but rather a "mid-cycle adjustment."
Analysts say the Fed's move triggered confusion and disappointment among many investors who had priced in further rate cuts later this year. Three major U.S. stock indexes all fell steeply in Wednesday afternoon trading.
"The market has also had a more decisive monetary policy response to the Chicago Fed's recent extremely weak sentiment indicator. I fear that we will face a period of higher price fluctuations," Ulrich Stephan, chief investment strategist at Deutsche Bank was quoted by German newspaper Handelsblatt as saying.
German institutional investors surveyed on a weekly basis do not seem optimistic as the DAX has had one of the highest weekly losses this year since last Wednesday, according to sentiment expert Joachim Goldberg in a note on Frankfurt stock exchange website.
But Goldberg added the pessimism of institutional investors is not conspicuously high in the six-month view either, concluding that the DAX will digest investor imbalances and be relatively stable.
Thursday's biggest loser in DAX were Siemens, whose shares declined by 4.03 percent after the company's Q3 results disappointed investors.
With fading hopes for further Fed rate cuts and expected loosening in September by the European central bank, the euro further weakened on Thursday, with the euro-dollar rate hitting a two-year low at 1.1037. Analysts expected an increasing demand for dollars across global money markets. Enditem
