Germany’s Dax 30 stock index turns 30

Germany’s benchmark stockmarket index, the Dax 30, has risen tenfold since it began life 30 years ago.

Germany's benchmark stockmarket index, the Dax 30, is celebrating its 30th birthday this year. The blue-chip index currently stands at around 12,500, which means it has risen tenfold over the last three decades. By contrast, the Dax's British counterpart, the FTSE 100, is up by a factor of four. Nonetheless, this isn't a fair comparison.

The Dax's return is "an illusion", says Christof Schrmann in WirtschaftsWoche. Unlike the FTSE 100, the Dax is a total return index. It measures the performance of its 30 constituent companies assuming that all dividends are reinvested. A price index such as the FTSE 100 only tracks price movements; it captures capital gains but not income.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

Marina Gerner is an award-winning journalist and columnist who has written for the Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement, the Economist, The Guardian and Standpoint magazine in the UK; the New York Observer in the US; and die Bild and Frankfurter Rundschau in Germany.

Marina is also an adjunct professor at the NYU Stern School of Business at their London campus, and has a PhD from the London School of Economics.

Her first book, The Vagina Business, deals with the potential of “femtech” to transform women’s lives, and will be published by Icon Books in September 2024.

Marina is trilingual and lives in London.