LANXESS Stock
Stock performance in %
* The Dow Jones STOXX 600 ChemicalsSM represents the chemicals-sector companies that are included in a larger index covering the 600 largest European enterprises in 18 different industries.
The performance of LANXESS stock in the first quarter of 2007 was characterized by relatively high volatility. It started the year well, but the price declined at the end of February against the background of a sharp downward trend on the stock markets. After stabilizing toward the end of the quarter, LANXESS again turned in a more positive performance.
The stock markets got off to a good start at the beginning of 2007, displaying a clear overall upward trend in the first two months of the year. The German blue-chip index DAX advanced toward 7000 points for the first time in more than six years, reaching a high for the quarter of 7027 in late February. On February 27 a downward trend set in on the world’s stock markets, caused by a slump on Asian exchanges and the release of disappointing data for the U.S. economy. This led to sharp falls in the German indices too. The DAX, for example, lost about 7% in just a week.
The ensuing brief recovery was followed by another downtrend in prices in mid-March, fueled mainly by fears of a collapse of the U.S. real-estate market. Recurrent declines in share prices in the U.S. and Asia also weighed on European markets. This second market downturn of the year was followed by a renewed uptrend on the stock markets that continued beyond the end of the first quarter. The DAX rose by 4.9% on the quarter to 6917, with the MDAX climbing sharply at the end of the period to reach 10201 points, an increase of 8.5% compared to the beginning of the year. The DJ STOXX 600 ChemicalsSM * closed on March 30, 2007 at 448.67, up 8.8%.