Geldanlage: Aus dieser Branche ziehen viele Deutsche ihr Geld ab

In September, 450,000 German customers of online broker Flatex reorganized their investment portfolios, according to exclusive data shared with Handelsblatt. Among the 200 largest positions, 22 showed net inflows of at least 5%, with the highest inflows coming from a German company listed in the MDax index. Flatex's Bank Flatexdegiro analyzed the portfolios of all German customers to evaluate these movements.

The net cash flows (Net Flows) were calculated for the largest individual stock positions to determine whether shares were bought or sold. For example, if a stock rose by 10% but the position in the portfolio only increased by 5%, the Net Flow would be negative, indicating a sale.

The following infographic shows which stocks were most frequently bought in September. The industrial conglomerate Thyssenkrupp emerged as the top performer with a net flow of 22.1%. Following closely were the Canadian mining company Energy Fuels with a 19.4% net inflow, and the ride-sharing service Uber at 16.3%. Immigrant companies LEG and Vonovia also made the list among the stocks with the highest net inflows.

Chris-Oliver Schickentanz, Chief Investment Officer at the asset manager Capitell, attributes Thyssenkrupp's positive net flow to rumors of a potential buyer for its elevator segment and a possible special dividend. Financial professor Andreas Hackethal from the Goethe University in Frankfurt observes two opposing strategies among investors: pro-cyclical investments in Uber and Energy Fuels, which saw increases after significant price drops, and cyclical investments in Thyssenkrupp, driven by strong performance in the steel segment and high market attention ahead of the capital market day.

Consequently, Hackethal concludes that there is no uniform market sentiment but rather two groups of investors with different action rules.

Thyssenkrupp's TKMS subsidiary experienced fluctuations in net flows, with a peak of 7.6% in July following a major Canadian contract and the steepest net outflows in August. However, in September, TKMS again appeared in the top 10 with a 7.6% net inflow. Seagate Technology and Redcare Pharmacy, a mail-order pharmacy, had the strongest outflows, with over 25% of investors selling their positions.

Analyst Schickentanz attributes Seagate's sales to takeover rumors, while Redcare's decline may be due to rising costs and lower disposable income in the travel and leisure sector.

Flatex's customers have largely been redeploying funds into industry stocks, particularly in the real estate and travel/recreation sectors. Schickentanz finds these trends surprising, as the real estate sector is heavily impacted by rising long-term interest rates, increasing financing costs, and declining property values. Frequent travel and leisure stocks are also less appealing during times of rising costs and lower available income.

Industry stocks, on the other hand, are more understandable due to the presence of AI profit-makers and increasing global infrastructure spending.