DAX turns 30 – Frankfurt celebrates

DAX, Deutsche Börse’s most important selection index, officially celebrated its 30th birthday. Deutsche Börse marked the anniversary on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange trading floor together with DAX members, management board members of well known companies, representatives of the Frankfurt financial centre community and the founding fathers of the DAX index, including Frank Mella and Manfred Zass. Deutsche Börse AG’s CEO Theodor Weimer punctually rang the opening bell at 9 a.m. with the guests on the trading floor. The DAX index has been a mirror of the performance of the 30 largest listed companies in Germany since 1988 and has firmly established itself as the benchmark for the German economy.

“The DAX is an institution – investors trust it, the media watch it. Anyone who believes in German companies invests in it. It is a kind of temperature chart for the German economy. The Dax is also a success story – it is transparent, rules-based and liquid. Furthermore, it’s a brand for ‘listed in Frankfurt’,” said Theodor Weimer, CEO of Deutsche Börse AG.

The DAX index is one of the most popular underlying for financial products in the world. There are 17 exchange traded funds (ETFs) on DAX, which have total assets under management of more than €17 billion. DAX futures and options are among the most popular derivatives. In 2017, the trading volume reached 21.5 million contracts, which was equivalent to a trading turnover of €6.7 billion. The index is also an underlying for numerous structured products.

DAX is a performance index, which takes account of dividend payments and thus reflects the actual performance of an investment. The 30 DAX stocks account for around 80 percent of the total market capitalisation of all listed companies in Germany.

The DAX index reached its all-time high on 23 January 2018 at 13,596.89 points. Its highest closing level was on the same day at 13,559.60 points. The lowest closing level was on 29 August 1988 at 1,152.38.

DAX^® is a registered trademark of Deutsche Börse AG.

More information, facts and key figures about the DAX index can be found below.