German Stocks Gain for Second Day on China Output; Linde Rises

By Cornelius Rahn

Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- German stocks advanced for a second day, with the benchmark DAX Index trimming its weekly decline, after a report showed China’s industrial output grew more than economists forecast.

The DAX rose 1.1 percent to 5,772.38 at 9:47 a.m. in Frankfurt. The gauge has still dropped 1 percent this week after slumping in the first three days on concern Fitch Rating’s state-debt downgrade on Greece and Standard & Poor’s negative outlook for Spain could herald further sovereign grade cuts. A first-half loss at Nakheel PJSC, the Dubai World-owned property developer seeking to renegotiate debt, also pulled equities lower. The broader HDAX Index increased 1.1 percent today.

China’s factory output surged 19.2 percent last month from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said in Beijing, exceeding the 18.2 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 25 economists. U.S. data today may show U.S. retail purchases climbed 0.6 percent last month after a 1.4 percent October gain, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. That would be the third increase in the past four months.

Linde AG, the world’s second-biggest maker of industrial gases, jumped 2.5 percent to 84.41 euros for a second day of gains. The company was raised to “overweight” from “equal- weight” at Morgan Stanley, which said “consensus is failing to recognize the recovery potential in sales in the medium term.”

BASF SE, the largest chemical maker, advanced 1.9 percent to 43.03 euros, heading for a third consecutive gain.

Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s biggest lender, rose 1 percent to 48.70 euros. Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann said all the big German financial institutions agreed to impose self- discipline on pay, suggesting Chancellor Angela Merkel won’t copy U.K. plans to tax bonuses.

ThyssenKrupp AG, Germany’s largest steelmaker, added 1.3 percent to 24.92 euros, extending yesterday’s gain. Salzgitter AG, the second-biggest, advanced 1.1 percent to 65.36 euros. Basic-resources shares were the best performers among 19 industry groups in Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index today.

The following stocks rose or fell in German markets. Symbols are in parentheses.

Fraport AG (FRA GY) advanced 2.6 percent to 35.37 euros after the operator of the Frankfurt airport was raised to “overweight” from “neutral” at HSBC Holdings Plc.

Sartorius AG (SRT3 GY) dropped 1.7 percent to 15.35 euros, poised for a fifth day of declines in the longest losing streak since July. The maker of laboratory scales and filtering equipment extended Chief Executive Officer Joachim Kreuzburg’s contract by five years to Nov. 10, 2015.

Stada Arzneimittel AG (SAZ GY) fell 1 percent to 26.11 euros, its first drop in three days. The German generic-drug maker was cut to “neutral” from “buy” at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research, which said “while our buy thesis was partly predicated on positive German healthcare reform proposals and cost-savings, we now believe these are largely priced-in.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Cornelius Rahn in Frankfurt at crahn2@bloomberg.net