BERLIN, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- German stocks were almost unchanged at the start of trading on Thursday, with the benchmark DAX index decreasing by 14.56 points, or 0.11 percent, opening at 13,774.44 points.
The biggest winner among Germany's 30 largest listed companies at the start of trading was dialysis specialist Fresenius Medical Care (FMC), increasing 1.44 percent, followed by financial service provider Wirecard with 1.31 percent and healthcare giant Fresenius with 0.74 percent.
On Thursday, Fresenius published its financial figures for 2019 and reported the sixteenth consecutive record year. Net income increased by 2 percent to 1.9 billion euros (2.1 billion U.S. dollars) and sales by 8 percent to 35.5 billion euros (38.1 billion dollars).
Shares of MTU Aero Engines dropped by 1.91 percent. The aircraft engine manufacturer was the biggest loser at the start of trading on Thursday.
MTU Aero Engines published its preliminary figures for the financial year 2019 on Thursday. Revenues "reached a new high" of about 4.6 billion euros (4.96 billion dollars) while the operating profit of 756.9 million euros (816.9 billion dollars) surpassed last year's result by 13 percent, the German aircraft engine manufacturer said.
German consumer sentiment shows a mixed picture with little change in February, according to the monthly consumer climate study published by market research institute GfK on Thursday.
"While economic expectations gained slightly, income expectations and propensity to buy suffered moderate losses," GfK said. For March, GfK forecasted a figure of 9.8 points, 0.1 point lower than February's level.
The euro was trading almost unchanged at 1.0810 U.S. dollars, increasing slightly by 0.01 percent on Thursday morning.
