BERLIN, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- German stocks remained almost unchanged at the start of trading on Thursday, with the benchmark DAX index increasing by 31.16 points, or 0.23 percent, opening at 13,463.46 points.
The biggest winner among Germany's 30 largest listed companies at the start of trading was chipmaker and semiconductor manufacturer Infineon, increasing 1.58 percent, followed by financial service provider Wirecard with 1.36 percent and Deutsche Bank with 1.35 percent.
Shares in Beiersdorf fell by 1.92 percent, making the German consumer goods company the biggest loser at the start of trading on Thursday after confirming its targets based on preliminary numbers. Organic revenues had increased by 4.1 percent to 7.6 billion euros (8.5 billion U.S. dollars) for the fiscal year 2019.
Shares in aircraft engine specialist MTU Aero increased by 0.72 percent, trading at around 279 euros (311 dollars) early Thursday after a rating by U.S. bank JP Morgan with a price target of 300 euros (334 dollars) from Wednesday.
JP Morgan Analyst David Perry expects MTU Aero to achieve high single-digit percentage growth until 2024, as well as an increase in profitability and free cash flow. The German engine manufacturer entered Germany's top-30 DAX index in 2019.
German consumer prices in December increased by 1.5 percent year-on-year, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced Thursday. In 2019, the annual average of consumer prices in Germany increased by 1.4 percent compared to the previous year.
Germany's Finance Minister Olaf Scholz announced on Thursday that operators of coal-fired power plants in Germany would receive more than 4 billion euros (4.5 billion dollars) in compensation for the premature shutdown of their plants due to the government's climate protection strategy.
Following the announcement, shares in German utility RWE increased by 1.29 percent shortly after trading started on Thursday. According to German media, government payments to RWE are to be higher than earlier reported, reaching 2.6 billion euros (2.9 billion dollars).
The euro was trading almost unchanged at 1.1152 dollars, decreasing slightly by 0.01 percent on Thursday morning.
