FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Thanks to a new attempt at recovery on the US stock markets, the Dax managed to move into the profit zone on Thursday. After the recent turbulence on financial markets around the globe, the German leading index had recovered on Wednesday for the first time since the beginning of August and recouped its losses from the start of the week. It has now stabilized further, gaining 0.37 per cent to 17,680.40 points. Robust weekly US labor market data provided support. Overall, however, the stock markets are still in choppy waters.

According to chief market analyst Jochen Stanzl from the broker CMC Markets, the 17,400-point mark is an important technical support level, meaning that a weekly close below this level would put additional downward pressure on the DAX. At the same time, stock markets are generally in "the seasonally weakest time for equities all year", which is why a sustained bottoming out of the DAX is not expected until the beginning of October.

In addition to US recession worries and fears of war in the Middle East, the global price slide was triggered above all by extensive speculative trading on the currency markets after expectations regarding monetary policy in the USA and Japan changed. This was a bull market correction "driven more by technical factors, the sale of leveraged positions, than by fundamental factors", summarized Jefferies analyst Christopher Wood.

The MDax of medium-sized companies lost 0.52 percent to 24,106.62 points on Thursday. The Eurozone's leading index, the EuroStoxx 50, ended the day up 0.01 percent at 4,668.74 points, while the most important indices on the stock exchanges in Paris, London and Switzerland also remained close to their previous day's closing levels. In the USA, the Dow Jones Industrial rose by around 1.5 percent. The technology-heavy Nasdaq stock market rose even more sharply.

The reporting season continued to set the tone among the individual stocks. Unexpectedly high demand for mobile phone contracts from Deutsche Telekom gave the Bonn-based group another strong quarter. The T-Shares rose by 1.9 percent. Allianz shares also rose by 1.9 percent. The insurer surprisingly increased its profit in the second quarter and intends to buy back more shares.

Siemens shares fluctuated strongly and ultimately rose by 2.1 percent. The results for the third quarter were better than feared and the order intake was strong, it was said. However, there is uncertainty against the backdrop of economic concerns. Rheinmetall rose to the top of the Dax by 3.4 percent after confirming its annual targets and final quarterly figures.

In the second-line index SDax, Dürr shares led the way with a plus of 8.1 percent. The plant manufacturer for the automotive and furniture industries exceeded expectations with its figures. At the bottom of the index, the shares of inverter manufacturer SMA Solar fell by 7.7 percent due to a continued poor order situation.

The euro traded at 1.0909 US dollars in the evening. The European Central Bank had set the reference rate at 1.0930 (Wednesday: 1.0922) US dollars in the afternoon. The dollar thus cost 0.9149 (0.9155) euros.

On the bond market, the current yield fell from 2.27 percent the previous day to 2.21 percent. The bond index Rex rose by 0.32 percent to 126.51 points. The Bund future was last unchanged at 134.17 points./ck/he

--- By Claudia Müller, dpa-AFX ---