DAX

The DAX tracks the 40 largest and most liquid companies listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and serves as Germany's blue-chip benchmark. It launched in 1988 with 30 constituents and was expanded to 40 in September 2021 following a series of listing controversies that prompted Deutsche Börse to broaden and tighten the index's eligibility rules.

Unusually among major global indices, the DAX is calculated as a total-return index by default — dividends paid by constituent companies are reinvested into the index calculation rather than simply dropping out, which tends to make the DAX's long-run return figures look higher than a price-only index covering the same companies over the same period. A separate price-only version exists but is quoted far less often.

As Europe's largest single-country economy, Germany's DAX is closely watched as a bellwether for eurozone industrial and export activity — the index carries heavy weight in automakers, industrial manufacturers, and chemical companies whose fortunes are tied to global trade volumes.