Frankfurt (Reuters) - At the end of the week, the Dax has ventured just above the 16,000 point mark.

The leading German index worked its way up in mini-steps and was 0.1 percent firmer at 16,018 points at midday. The EuroStoxx50 was treading water. Every point is being fought over, "because profit-taking at the round mark seems attractive and the necessary follow-up purchases to sustainably overcome it are not forthcoming", stated Jürgen Molnar from RoboMarkets. On Thursday, the DAX had already occasionally peeked above the 16,000 mark.

The leading index received some tailwind from the Ifo business climate index. Sentiment in the boardrooms of the German economy brightened again in November - the barometer rose by 0.4 points to 87.3 points compared to the previous month. This is the third increase in a row. "In view of the otherwise dismal economic news situation, this is a real eye-catcher," said Thomas Gitzel, Chief Economist at VP Bank. Nevertheless, this should not hide the fact that Germany is in recession.

In fact, the economic outlook is anything but rosy so far. The EU Commission is forecasting that Germany will be the only major economy in the eurozone to shrink this year, with gross domestic product (GDP) falling by 0.3 percent. On Friday, the Federal Statistical Office confirmed an estimate from the end of October, according to which GDP fell by 0.1 percent from July to September compared to the previous quarter due to falling consumer spending. Economists and the Bundesbank assume that the current quarter will be the second negative quarter in a row, leading to a technical recession. The euro barely budged against the backdrop of the data, trading at 1.0903 dollars. The dollar was once again affected by speculation that the marathon of interest rate hikes in the USA would come to an end. The dollar index lost 0.3 percent to 103.63 points and was thus within reach of its most recent two-and-a-half-month low of 103.17 points.

Among the individual stocks, BASF provided a talking point, leading the Dax with a gain of more than two percent at times. According to a media report, the oil company Adnoc from the Emirate of Abu Dhabi is examining a takeover bid for the oil company Wintershall Dea, which is controlled by BASF. According to the report, the company could be valued at ten billion euros.

BARCLAYS STUDY DRIVES AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIERS

A study by Barclays caused movement in the automotive sector. Continental shares advanced 1.6 percent in the Dax. Forvia gained two percent on the Paris stock exchange. The experts at the British bank see upside potential for car parts manufacturers. They upgraded the shares to "overweight". In contrast, analysts remained more skeptical about car manufacturers. They downgraded both Porsche SE and Mercedes Benz to "Equal-Weight" from "Overweight". The shares lost 1.7 and 0.7 percent respectively in the Dax.

On the commodities market, the postponement of the meeting of Opec+, which includes the members of the export cartel as well as other producing countries such as Russia, caused nervous trading. While the price of North Sea oil Brent stabilized at 81.66 dollars per barrel, US oil WTI fell by 0.4 per cent to 76.75 dollars. The Opec+ consultations, which are now only scheduled for November 30, led to speculation that the expected production cuts could be lower than expected. "If the current production level is maintained on balance, prices could temporarily fall slightly because there was simply not 'more'," Commerzbank analysts forecast.

(Report by: Daniela Pegna, edited by Ralf Bode. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)