Investors maintained confidence in German stocks for a seventh day in a row as sentiment towards the eurozone economy further improved.
At Wednesday's close, the blue-chip DAX index was up 0.50%.
European Commission data showed the eurozone's business confidence index rose to 96.3 in March from 95.5 the previous month. This indicator remains below its long-term average of 100 points.
“Overall, the euro area economy appears to be showing signs of an impending upturn in growth. Nothing spectacular, but the end of stagnation is nevertheless near. Inflation expectations for services are becoming more moderate. “The ECB appears able to contribute to a more favorable environment by cutting interest rates from June,” ING commented.
The Eurozone employment expectations index rose by 0.1 point to 102.6 in March, while the Consumer Confidence index stood at -14.9, compared with -15.5 in the previous month, according to preliminary figures from the Directorate General for Economic Affairs and Fiscal Affairs.
Focusing on Germany, the country's five leading economic research institutes said Europe's top economy is showing cyclical and structural weaknesses. In this assessment, the institutes revised down their forecast for Germany's gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in 2024 from the previous forecast of 1.3% to 0.1%, and in 2025 from the previous forecast of 1.5% to 1.4%. did.
On the corporate side, SAP 
SAP Partnered with fellow software company Nvidia 
NVDA Build SAP Business AI, a platform that powers business artificial intelligence and provides access to a wide range of large-scale language models. The two companies plan to launch an AI hub by the end of 2024. At the close of trading, SAP was down 0.31% and Nvidia was down 3.03%.
