(New: Headline, entry, analyst opinion.)

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - A significantly reduced court penalty payment for Bayer did not knock the socks off investors in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical group on Wednesday. In late morning trading, the shares were 0.7 percent firmer at 28.53 euros, gaining only slightly more than the DAX, which was up around 0.6 percent.

In early trading, the shares had risen by up to 2.9 percent, but then quickly fell. For the current year, the share price is still down a whopping 15 percent. Since the end of January, the share price has not made it sustainably above the 30 euro mark.

The pharmaceutical and agrochemical group has to pay significantly less than expected in a legal dispute over the glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup. A court in Philadelphia reduced the damages from 2.25 billion US dollars to 400 million US dollars. This was the highest amount since the start of the lawsuits surrounding the alleged cancer risks of the weedkiller glyphosate in 2018. Bayer intends to appeal.

Despite the reduced fine, the burdens associated with Roundup are still too great for the Group as a whole for investors to be relieved, said one trader in an initial reaction this morning.

Another Borsian called the court's decision unsurprising, as the damages award of 2.25 billion dollars was "unusually high". However, it would be inappropriate to sound the all-clear in view of the very high number of lawsuits still pending with an uncertain outcome.

Goldman Sachs analyst James Quigley also considers the reduced penalty to be in line with expectations. A reduction of around 80 percent has already been made in other cases./edh/bek/men