The German stock index DAX 30 (GER30) was introduced under "DAX" on July, 1st in 1988 by the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. It consists of the 30 largest companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange based on the market capitalization and liquidity. The trading hours for the Frankfurt Stock Exchange take place from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. CET. The DAX30 is usually reported as a performance index, which means that the dividends of the companies are reinvested. In a price index the corporate distributions remains disregarded (this can be seen e.g. in EUROSTOXX50). If a company wants to be included in the DAX, it must be listed in the Prime Standard, it has to be traded continuously in Xetra and have at least a free float of 10 %. Additionally, the company must have a registered office in Germany or the main focus of its traded volume in shares is in Frankfurt and the company has a seat in the EU. Based on market capitalization, the five biggest German companies listed in the DAX 30 are Bayer (BAYN), Daimler (DAI), Siemens (SIE), Allianz (ALV) and BASF (BAS). The development in the DAX is often seen as an indicator for the development of the German economy. As a result, the DAX can be seen as a proxy for European economic health since the German economy accounts for almost one third of the total value of the Eurozone economy. The DAX 30s counterparts in Europe are the CAC 40 in France and the FTSE 100 in Britain.
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