FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - A turbulent week on the stock markets ended on a positive note for the German stock market. The Dax gained 0.24 percent to 17,722.88 points on Friday, a similarly moderate increase over the week. The unwinding of extensive speculative transactions on the foreign exchange markets and concerns about recession had caused the leading German index to plummet to almost 17,000 points at the beginning of the week, its lowest level since February.

"Last week started with fear and ended with hope," commented Ulrich Kater, Chief Economist at Dekabank. "Investors used the price falls to add to equity positions and prices subsequently recovered somewhat, although the overall picture remained characterized by uncertainty and volatility," said Kater.

Recession worries have now eased somewhat following encouraging data from the US jobs market, according to the market. The weekly initial jobless claims had already fallen more sharply than expected on Thursday. This indicates that the labor market is more robust than the latest data would suggest, wrote the experts at Landesbank Baden-Württemberg. In China, meanwhile, higher inflation boosted share prices on hopes that domestic demand will recover.

Thanks to pleasing quarterly figures, stocks from the lower tiers of the stock market in particular also rose. The MDax of medium-sized companies rose by 0.59% to 24,249.84 points. The second-line index SDax rose by 0.54 percent./niw/he