History of the DAX 30 index
The DAX 30 or Deutscher Aktieninde is the main German stock market. It brings together the 30 most important German companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
It is the main European stock index on the world market. It was established at the beginning of the 1980s but it was officially published in 1988.
17 companies have been able to keep their place on the DAX 30 index since its creation.
Its base value is 1,000 points, which is the same as that of the CAC 40 index.
The DAX 30 experienced the cold war and also the fall of the Berlin Wall in October 1989 which caused it to lose 13% of its value in just one month.
But its history does not end there. In fact, a decade later the DAX 30 was victim of the speculative bubble called the Internet Bubble in the early 2000s. On 7 March 2000, the German Stock Exchange reached its highest level which was 8,136 points but collapsed three years later in 2003 and reached 2,200 points.
This sharp drop in the DAX 30 index was due firstly to the speculative bubble that the Asian crisis had not been able to curb and then to the attacks on the World Trade Centre in September 2001.
It is important to know that the German Stock Exchange publishes two Dax indices:
- The DAX TR corresponds to the DAX Total return. It includes dividends paid by companies in the index.
- The DAX PR corresponds to the DAX price.. Dividends are not included in the calculation of the index. The French CAC 40 index is calculated this way also.
Composition of the DAX 30 index
The index of the DAX 30 consists of the 30 largest companies which make up the German economy.
| Company: | Sector | Index weight |
| Adidas | Textile industry | 1.22 |
| Allianz | Insurance | 7.34 |
| BASF | Chemical industry | 5.62 |
| Bayer | Pharmaceutical industry | 7.06 |
| Beiersdorf | Cosmetics | 0.75 |
| BMW | Vehicle manufacturer | 1.63 |
| Commerzbank | Bank | 0.96 |
| Daimler | Vehicle manufacturer | 5.37 |
| Deutsche Bank | Bank | 3.53 |
| Deutsche Börse | Stock exchange | 2.44 |
| Deutsche Lufthansa | Airline company | 1.13 |
| Deutsche Post | Postal service | 2.22 |
| Deutsche Postbank | Bank | 0.23 |
| Deutsche Telekom | Telecommunications | 7.39 |
| E.ON | Electricity and water | 10 |
| Fresenius Medical Care | Pharmaceutical industry | 1.43 |
| Henkel | Consumer products | 0.93 |
| Infineon | Semi-conductors | 0.11 |
| K+S | Chemical industry | 1.14 |
| Linde | Engineering | 2.26 |
| MAN | Heavy vehicle manufacturer | 0.82 |
| Merck | Pharmaceutical industry | 0.9 |
| Metro | Distribution | 0.72 |
| Munich Re | Reinsurance | 5.08 |
| RWE | Electricity and water | 5.73 |
| Salzgitter | Metallurgy | 0.42 |
| SAP | I.T. | 5.08 |
| Siemens | Engineering | 9.83 |
| ThyssenKrupp | Various industries | 1.38 |
| Volkswagen | Vehicle manufacturer | 7.28 |
Charts and progress of the DAX 30 index
Below is a chart showing the progress of the DAX 30 index over the last few years
How to trade on the DAX 30 index
The DAX 30 index cannot be traded directly, you have to trade through a DAX 30 CFD or a DAX 30 Future that tracks the DAX 30 index’s progress.
Benoist Rousseau has been a trader since 1994, is a member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), and holds a maîtrise d'histoire (four-year French university degree) from Paris IV-Sorbonne. A former corporate historian for a CAC 40 group, he is ranked among the top 10 economic influencers by Challenges magazine. Today, he passes on his method at his trading school through his day trading course. In the “Stock Market Investing” section, he distinguishes patient investing from speculation and shows what long cycles teach the investor.
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