FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The DAX reached its sixth record high in a row on Monday, but was unable to hold on to its gains until the end. The air on the German stock market has therefore become thinner at the start of the week. However, profit-taking among the Dax heavyweights was once again hardly to be observed - with the exception of the Rheinmetall share.

The Dax closed 0.19 percent weaker at 20,345.96 points. At the start of trading, it had set another high of 20,505 points. The MDax lost 0.77 percent to 27,099.60 points at the start of the week.

"The German share index is currently flying high and is everywhere in the media," wrote the experts from online broker Lynx. Many investors are probably worried about missing out on the rally. However, the recent strong rise now favors a correction. The situation suggests profit-taking rather than entry.

Overall, caution prevailed, as important dates are on the stock market calendar with inflation data from the USA on Wednesday and the interest rate decision by the European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday. In the following week, the US Federal Reserve will also decide on key interest rates.

Rheinmetall brought up the rear in the Dax with a drop of 6 percent. Other defense stocks such as Hensoldt and Renk also suffered heavy losses. According to traders, the meeting between US President-elect Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi may have triggered the losses. Trump called for a ceasefire in the Ukraine war and directly called on Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to take action.

A buy recommendation from Warburg Research drove the BASF share price up by 2.7 percent, making it one of the biggest winners in the DAX.

The biggest loser in the MDax was Hellofresh, which fell by almost 10 percent. The mail-order cooking box company is facing allegations of child labor in the USA. However, the company denied this and ended its cooperation with a temporary employment agency.

Among the smaller stocks, the shares of Compugroup stood out. A takeover bid from financial investor CVC Capital of 22 euros per Compugroup share caused the price of the software developer for the healthcare sector to shoot up by almost a third.

The euro barely moved and was trading at 1.0577 US dollars in the evening. The ECB had previously set the reference rate at 1.0568 dollars. The dollar thus cost 0.9462 euros.

On the bond market, the current yield fell from 2.09 percent on Friday to 2.07 percent. The bond index Rex rose by 0.12 percent to 127.36 points. The Bund future fell by 0.156 percent to 136.05 points in the evening./bek/nas

--- By Benjamin Krieger, dpa-AFX ---