What Is the DAX 40 Index?
In short
The DAX 40 is the German blue-chip stock index: 40 companies listed in Frankfurt and traded on Xetra, weighted by free-float market capitalization and calculated as a performance index.
The DAX has been calculated from Xetra prices since 1988 and held 30 companies until it was extended to 40 in 2021. Eligible companies are listed on the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, trade continuously on Xetra, have a minimum free float and have a legal or operating headquarters in Germany. STOXX, a Deutsche Börse Group company, publishes the guide that sets out the rules.
Selection and weighting use free-float market capitalization, which is the market value of the shares available for public trading. The composition is reviewed on a regular schedule, with fast entry and fast exit rules that can change membership between the scheduled reviews.
The headline version of the index is a performance index: dividends paid by the member companies are treated as reinvested, so the DAX measures total return, which sets it apart from most national headline indices, which are price indices. A price version of the DAX exists as a separate index with a different value, so a quoted level should be checked against the version it belongs to. The DAX family also contains separate indices for medium-sized and smaller companies and for technology companies, each with its own rules and members.
Figures used in this guide
- 30
- number of companies in the index before the extension
- 40
- number of companies in the index since its extension
Each number in the text is a definition, a convention or a stated value of the source, not a market observation.
How Lzzo.com shows it
The DAX 40 page shows the index in points with its observation time, and a table of its member companies, linked to their product pages. Lzzo.com treats the German stocks as one set on this page; the Germany stock market page links to it and no separate list of German stocks is published. The level shown is that of the performance version.
Related guides
Sources
- STOXX, Guide to the DAX Equity Indices
- STOXX, DAX index page
- Deutsche Börse, Facts from 30 years of DAX
Primary and official sources, named as plain text.