BERLIN, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- German stocks were off to a good start on Friday, with the benchmark DAX index increasing by 84.05 points, or 0.63 percent, opening at 13,513.48 points.
The biggest winner among Germany's 30 largest listed companies at the start of trading was German utility RWE, increasing 3.86 percent, followed by financial service provider Wirecard with 2.1 percent and pharmaceutical company Bayer with 1.58 percent.
Shares of RWE continued to profit from the announcement of Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on Thursday about compensation payments to the operators of coal-fired plants. RWE alone is to receive 2.6 billion euros (2.9 billion U.S. dollars) for switching off its coal plants as required by the national climate strategy.
Shares of Deutsche Telekom fell by 0.07 percent. The German telecommunications company was the biggest loser at the start of trading on Friday.
The euro was trading almost unchanged at 1.1137 dollars, decreasing slightly by 0.01 percent on Friday morning.
