DAX Down Slightly; Sartorius Soars 10% On Strong Sales Forecast

(RTTNews) - German stocks are turning in a mixed performance on Thursday as investors largely stay cautious amid a lack of fresh data, and await earnings updates and continue to monitor political developments in France.

U.S.-China trade tensions weigh on sentiment, while expectations of further rate cuts from the Federal Reserve help limit market's downside.

The benchmark DAX, which slid to 24,051.25 earlier in the session, was down 5.88 points or 0.02% at 24,205.10 a little while ago.

Merck is down by about 2.9%. Heidelberg Materials is down 1.7% and Zalando is lower by 1.3%.

Munich RE, E.ON and Deutsche Bank are down 0.8 to 1%, while Bayer, Siemens Energy and SAP are lower by 0.4 to 0.6%

Symrise and Rheinmetall are gaining 1.3% and 1.4%, respectively. Adidas, Siemens Healthineers, Qiagen, Brenntag, Henkel, Mercedes-Benz and Beiersdorf are up with moderate gains.

Shares of Laboratory and pharmaceutical supplier Sartorius is gaining about 10% after the company raised its full-year sales forecast after a strong Q3.

Sartorius said its nine-month profit surged 66% from a year ago, helped by strong performances by all divisions. During the nine-month period, sales revenue came in at 2.61 billion euros, up 5.5% from 2.47 billion euros in the prior-year period. On a constant currency basis, sale revenue rose 7.5% from the year-ago period.

Sartorius has raised its full-year sales revenue guidance for the Group and its divisions. The company now expects Group sales revenue to grow by about 7%, compared to the earlier forecast of around 6% organic growth.

Dragerwerk shares are soaring nearly 12%. The German medical and safety technology manufacturer gave a more optimistic outlook for the full year following growth in the past quarter.