The Deutscher Aktienindex known as the DAX index is the benchmark equity market index of the German economy. The index is composed of 30 largest companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and also takes into account the dividend yields in addition to the performance of stocks thereby reflecting the actual performance of companies in the index. The DAX was launched on 1st July 1988 and has a base value of 1000 as of December 31, 1987.
The composition of the index consists of 30 companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange with respective sector allocations. Chemicals constitute 22.9% of the sectoral allocation of the index followed by Automobiles and Auto Components at 19.2%, Industrial Goods and Services at 9.1%, Insurance at 9.9%, Software at 6.5%, Pharma and Healthcare at 5.8%, Telecommunications at 5.5% and other sectors at 21.1%. The index covers approximately 80% of the German market capitalization of companies.
The DAX has given a return of 4.4% on a year on year basis and 4.32% year to date. The index reached an all-time high of 12,390 in the month of April 2015. The index has a Price to Earnings ratio of 17.2 in the current scenario. Bayer company has the highest weightage of 9.9% in the DAX index followed by Daimler with a weightage of 9.3%, BASF SE with 8.3%, Siemens with 7.9% and Allianz SE at 7.2% while others have less than 7.2% weightage each in the index.
