Many DAX companies surprised shareholders with their second quarter figures. Investors were positive about Continental's demerger plans, Hannover Re's profit increase, defence orders at Rheinmetall and market optimism at Vonovia. However, investors were disappointed by weakening agricultural chemicals at Bayer, sluggish trading in Deutsche Post's business, the consequences of Deutsche Bank's Postbank provisions, and the absence of a hoped-for forecast increase at RWE. The Sartorius share was hit particularly hard after the Group cut its sales and earnings targets.

All in all, the share price gains made by the DAX companies on the day of the annoucement of their figures outweighed the losses. On average, share prices rose by 0.3% – not much, but still a plus. The figure is calculated by comparing the price reaction of the individual stocks with the performance of the DAX on the same day. This calculation also takes into account the size of the DAX stocks.

SAP topped the table. Not only did the share price increase by 7.15%, but the weighting of the group was also reflected in the calculation. Excluding SAP, the share price movement for the DAX companies was negative. Although heavyweights Siemens, Allianz, Airbus and Telekom all performed positively, the share price losses of numerous stocks were strikingly high.

Conversely, Sartorius' share price slide had little effect: Although the drop totalled a whopping 15.24%, the stock hardly carries any weight in the index. A total of 19 companies saw their share prices rise following the presentation of their quarterly figures, while 21 suffered losses.