Around the World's Markets: Frankfurt

THE BLUE-CHIP Xetra DAX index ended 0.3 per cent up yesterday after its Thursday fall as the market began to sense that recent hard times could be ending. The electronically traded DAX closed up 14.45 points at 4,809.7, while the floor DAX, which closes 30 minutes earlier, ended up 0.5 per cent at 4,836.2.

DG Bank warned that the market could fall back in the near term "in order to take a run at the leap over the 5,000 point level. By year-end it should have managed to break through this level".