FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - In view of the progress of the takeover of Telefonica Deutschland by its Spanish parent company Telefonica, the mobile phone company's days in the MDax are numbered. According to a statement on Monday, the Spaniards now hold 93 percent of the shares of the still-MDax group after the expiry of the acceptance period. As the free float has thus fallen below the threshold of ten percent required for inclusion in the index, the shares will drop out of the mid-cap index within two days, as expert Luca Thorißen from investment firm Stifel explains. Based on the January ranking, the industrial recycler Befesa would move up into the MDax. The paper of office furniture retailer Takkt would be included in the second-line index SDax.

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