FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The approaching departure of gas producer Linde from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and thus from the leading index Dax should particularly please Commerzbank. Because the Frankfurt-based major bank managed just in time to meet the profitability criterion introduced by Deutsche Börse in 2021 with its 2022 operating result in the billions of euros.

It states that a company is only admitted to the top stock market league if it has generated a positive operating result (Ebitda) in the two preceding fiscal years. If Commerzbank were to be admitted to the Dax, Rheinmetall would lose out. This is because Commerzbank is ahead of the defense group in terms of the main criterion for an index promotion, the freely tradable stock market value.

Index experts from Societe Generale, JPMorgan and Stifel Europe therefore now firmly expect the bank to return to the top stock market league on Monday, February 27. The decision on this will be announced by Deutsche Börse this Friday evening after the U.S. close of trading.

The armaments group and automotive supplier Rheinmetall would thus be out of the running and probably has no chance of being promoted to the Dax at the next index review in March. The reason for this is that there are currently no potential relegations in the index of the 40 largest companies.

According to the index experts, wind turbine manufacturer Nordex can look forward to a return to the MDax in two weeks' time. According to Tom Koula of Stifel Europe and JPMorgan analyst Pankaj Gupta, Deutsche Beteiligungs AG is likely to return to the SDax.

Index changes are particularly important for funds that replicate indices in real terms (physically replicating ETFs). There, they have to be rebalanced and rebalanced accordingly, which can have an impact on share prices./ck/ajx/jha/