German investors defy banking woes

German stocks fared well as trading floors in Frankfurt opened on Monday morning - even after two major banks struggled in a Europe-wide stability test.

The German stock index DAX rose by 0.9 percent to 10,430.17 points, hitting the highest level since April.

This comes despite banking giants Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank performing poorly in the European Banking Authority's (EBA) so-called "stress test," which rated financial institutions' ability to survive an economic crisis.

Both were among the weakest 10 out of 51 banks whose balance sheets were examined.

But overall, the test returned reassuring results, as regulators deemed most European banks strong enough to withstand turbulent times.

This had contributed to Monday's strong DAX opening, wrote analyst Clemens Bundschuh.

Problem children

Despite their subpar test results, Deutsche Bank's and Commerzbank's shares rose early on Monday.

Commerzbank's stocks climbed by 1.6 percent during morning trading; and Deutsche Bank even took the biggest opening plus within the DAX, as their shares went up by around 3 percent.

This had been down to the banks faring better than expected in the stress test, a stock trader told news agency Reuters.

But as trading continued the momentum tailed away. Commerzbank shares even slipped into negative territory, making them the weakest within the DAX.

mrk/hg (Reuters, dpa)