BERLIN, July 9 (Xinhua) -- German stocks were off to a good start on Thursday, with the benchmark DAX index rising 144.36 points, or 1.16 percent, opening at 12,639.17 points.
The biggest winner among Germany's largest 30 companies at the start of trading was software company SAP, increasing strongly by 6.55 percent, followed by chipmaker Infineon with 1.99 percent and automotive supplier Continental with 1.71 percent.
On Wednesday after trading, SAP announced that its operating profit rose by 8 percent to 1.96 billion euros (2.22 billion U.S. dollars) in the second quarter of 2020.
"I am extremely proud that our teams successfully navigated the very challenging environment to deliver a better than anticipated quarter," said Christian Klein, chief executive officer (CEO) of SAP.
Shares of Wirecard fell by 3.73 percent. The German financial service provider was the biggest loser at the start of trading on Thursday, followed by industrial gas producer Linde and dialysis specialist Fresenius Medical Care (FMC), declining by 0.43 and 0.03 percent, respectively.
German exports decreased strongly in May year-on-year, declining by 29.7 percent to 80.3 billion euros. German imports in May declined as well, shrinking by 21.7 percent year-on-year, the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Thursday.
On Thursday, German technology giant Siemens is scheduled to hold its annual general meeting (AGM). German media reported that shareholders are expected to approve the spin-off and IPO of Siemens Energy at the end of September.
The yield on German ten-year bonds went down 0.010 percentage points to minus 0.451 percent, and the euro was trading almost unchanged at 1.1332 U.S. dollars, decreasing by 0.02 percent on Thursday morning. Enditem
