The DAX Index: 40 Stocks, Little Germany, Lots of World

In depth13 min read · updated 5 November 2026 · 27 sources

The DAX is Germany's best-known stock index: 40 companies listed in Frankfurt, weighted by the market value of their free float and calculated with reinvested dividends. This profile shows the rules behind the index, how strongly a few stocks shape it, why its companies earn only about a fifth of their revenue in Germany, and how it has changed since 1988. It also compares the DAX with MSCI Germany, MSCI's country index for Germany. Unless stated otherwise, all figures come from factsheets and reports as of September 30, 2026.

The rules: 40 seats, a free-float ranking and an earnings hurdle for newcomers

Sources: rulebook (DAX Methodology 2026) and factsheet from STOXX (STOXX, DAX factsheet 2026).

Selection follows a ranking by the market value of the free float, the freely tradable shares. At the quarterly reviews, a company enters the index at once if it ranks 33rd or better (fast entry) and leaves at once if it ranks worse than 60th (fast exit). In March and September, a company also enters in the regular way at rank 40 or better and leaves below rank 53. To meet the minimum turnover, a newcomer needs order book volume of €1 billion over the past twelve months or a turnover rate of 20% of its free float (DAX Methodology 2026).

One feature sets it apart from most major country indices: the DAX you see in the news is a performance index. Dividends are reinvested before taxes, as in a gross return index. The Dow Jones, the S&P 500 and the CAC 40, by contrast, are quoted as price indices. A comparison by STOXX shows how much this matters: from the start of 2013 to December 2024, the performance index ran 75 percentage points ahead of the price index (STOXX, December 2024). DAX point levels therefore cannot be compared directly with those of other countries.

Siemens, SAP and Allianz carry almost a third of the DAX

As of September 30, 2026. DAX: holdings of a physically replicating DAX ETF (iShares Core DAX factsheet 2026), because the STOXX factsheet shows no single weights; the largest weight matches the STOXX factsheet (11.7%, STOXX, DAX factsheet (2026)). MSCI Germany: factsheet (MSCI Germany factsheet 2026).

Three companies, Siemens, SAP and Allianz, add up to almost a third of the index. The five largest stocks weigh 45.25%, the ten largest 65.31%. The remaining 30 companies share just over a third. The median DAX company is worth €19.3 billion, the smallest €4.6 billion. The 40 stocks cover 74.2% of the total market value of the Regulated Market in Frankfurt (€2,052.5 billion of €2,764.6 billion, STOXX, DAX factsheet (2026)).

The industry mix has shifted as well. Industrials and technology dominate; the auto industry, long the flagship, now weighs only 4%. A direct comparison of sectors with MSCI Germany is difficult, though: STOXX classifies by the Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB), MSCI by the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS). One example: Siemens Energy belongs to the energy sector under ICB but to industrials under GICS. That is why MSCI Germany shows no energy sector at all, while energy makes up 7.1% of the DAX, almost exactly the weight of Siemens Energy.

As of September 30, 2026; for the DAX, STOXX shows only the ten largest of 20 supersectors (STOXX, DAX factsheet 2026; MSCI Germany factsheet 2026).

Effectively, the DAX is diversified like at most 18 stocks

The number 40 overstates diversification. A better measure is the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, the sum of squared weights, and its inverse, the effective number of holdings. Because only the ten largest weights are known, we use a lower bound for the rest, as in the article MSCI World vs. ACWI: the sum of squares is smallest when the rest is spread evenly.

For the DAX, the squares of the ten largest weights add up to 513.31 (in %²), and the evenly spread rest contributes at least 34.69² / 30 = 40.11. The HHI is therefore at least 553.42%², and the effective number of holdings at most 18.07. The DAX is thus diversified like at most 18 equally sized stocks. Despite 50 members, MSCI Germany reaches at most 18.22, because its top is slightly heavier still. For comparison, the MSCI World is diversified like at most 93 equally sized stocks. A DAX ETF is therefore a country bet with marked concentration risk, not a broadly diversified core holding.

The 15% cap only limits the very top. In December 2024, SAP reached 16.2% before capping (STOXX, December 2024). At a review, STOXX cuts the weight back to 15% and spreads the excess proportionally across the other stocks. Between review dates, the cap only applies once a stock exceeds 20% (DAX Methodology 2026). Under the old 10% limit, STOXX had to cap 38 times in ten years, affecting four companies; at 15%, it would never have been necessary (STOXX, capping consultation 2023).

Only a fifth of revenue comes from Germany

The DAX contains German-listed stocks, but it does not measure the German economy. According to Deutsche Bank, DAX companies earn only about 20% of their revenue in Germany; 28% comes from the rest of Europe, 23% from Asia-Pacific and 21.6% from North America (the remainder is not assigned to a region, Deutsche Bank (2025)). An analysis by HQ Trust finds an average domestic share of 20% for the 40 DAX companies in fiscal 2023, and 35% for the MDAX companies (HQ Trust 2025). The link to the domestic business cycle is weak accordingly: the DAX correlates more closely with global growth (0.41) than with German growth (0.33, STOXX, December (2024)).

The annual reports of the largest companies confirm the picture. Siemens earns 28.0% of its revenue in the US and 9.1% in China, SAP 31.4% in the US. Through T-Mobile US, Deutsche Telekom is 65.6% a North American company. Airbus does not report a figure for Germany: Europe as a whole stands for 40.8% of revenue, Asia-Pacific for 28.0% (Airbus 2026). Allianz reports its business volume by region, 25% of it in Germany and 14% in the US (Allianz 2026).

The owners are international too. According to EY, foreign investors hold at least 52.6% of DAX shares, investors from North America alone 25.4% (EY 2025). For an American investor, this means the DAX is less of a bet on the German economy than its name suggests: it adds German-listed companies whose business is spread around the world, much like the large US companies discussed in the article home bias.

Since 1988: the dot-com crash, Wirecard and the jump to 40 stocks

• 1988: The DAX launches on July 1, back-calculated from 1,000 points at the end of 1987. It continues the index of the newspaper Börsen-Zeitung, whose history goes back to 1959 (DAX Methodology 2026). At first it was calculated once a minute, every second since 2006 (STOXX, July 2024).
• 2000 to 2003: After the dot-com bubble bursts, the DAX falls 73% from March 2000 to March 2003. From July 2007 to March 2009 it loses 55%, and in the 2020 COVID crash 39% in less than a month (STOXX, July 2024).
• 2018 to 2020: Wirecard joins the DAX in September 2018. After its insolvency in June 2020, Deutsche Börse introduces a new rule for insolvent members and removes Wirecard as of August 24, 2020; Delivery Hero takes its place (Deutsche Börse 2020).
• 2021: After a consultation with more than 600 responses, the index grows from 30 to 40 stocks in September. The newcomers are Airbus, Zalando, Siemens Healthineers, Symrise, HelloFresh, Sartorius, Porsche SE, Brenntag, Puma and Qiagen (Deutsche Börse 2021). Quality rules come along: positive EBITDA for new members, timely audited reports and an audit committee (STOXX, DAX reform 2020).
• 2024: On March 18 the cap rises from 10% to 15% (STOXX, capping consultation 2023). On December 3 the DAX closes above 20,000 points for the first time; SAP accounts for just over 40% of the year's gain (STOXX, December 2024).
• 2025 and 2026: GEA and Scout24 join in September 2025 (STOXX, September 2025), Hochtief in June 2026 in place of Porsche SE (STOXX, June 2026).

Industry weights have changed even more than the membership. According to a Deutsche Bank analysis from August 2025, the share of automakers and suppliers fell from 19% to 6% within ten years, health care from 16% to 6% and chemicals from 13% to 3%, mainly because Linde left the index in 2023. Industrials rose from 13% to 27%, technology from 8% to 18% (Deutsche Bank 2025). Eleven of the original 1988 members were still in the index in mid-2024, among them BASF, Bayer, BMW, Deutsche Bank, Siemens and Volkswagen (STOXX, July 2024).

Valued higher than MSCI Germany and ahead since 2018

DAX: STOXX factsheet with cumulative returns (3 years 63.8%, 5 years 65.1%), annualized by us (STOXX, DAX factsheet 2026; STOXX, July 2024). MSCI Germany: factsheets with gross and net returns (MSCI Germany factsheet 2026; MSCI Germany factsheet (gross) 2026). The volatilities are based on different data series and are only roughly comparable.

On the P/E ratio, STOXX puts the DAX at 18.7 and MSCI puts MSCI Germany at 15.58. Part of the gap is method: STOXX includes negative earnings here (excluding them: 17.8), and the two providers define earnings differently. Another part is membership, because Airbus is missing from MSCI Germany, which has ten more stocks instead. The dividend yield of just over 2% to 2.6% is well above that of the S&P 500 at 1.10% (SPDR S&P 500 factsheet 2026).

Over eight years combined, the DAX clearly beat MSCI Germany: +79.34% versus +61.98%, or 7.57% versus 6.21% per year. The largest gap came in 2022 at 4.15 percentage points. This says nothing about which method is better: single companies such as Airbus, which is only in the DAX, and the different capping are enough to make country indices with so few large stocks drift apart.

MSCI Germany: ten more stocks, no cap, apparently no Airbus

• Scope: MSCI Germany has 50 stocks and, by its own account, covers about 85% of the equity market, like all MSCI standard indices (MSCI GIMI Methodology 2024). The DAX has a fixed 40 stocks and just over 74% of the market value of the Regulated Market.
• Country assignment: Airbus, based in the Netherlands, is a DAX member but is missing from the ten largest stocks of MSCI Germany even though its weight would qualify; MSCI apparently assigns the company to another country. Scout24, a DAX member since September 2025, counts as a small company at MSCI and sits in MSCI Germany Small Cap (MSCI Germany Small Cap factsheet 2026).
• Rules: The DAX requires a listing on the Regulated Market in Frankfurt and positive EBITDA for newcomers. MSCI selects by size and tradability without an earnings test and reviews in February, May, August and November.
• Capping: In the DAX, a company weighs at most 15%. The MSCI standard index has no limit per stock; separate capped variants exist for that.
• Sectors: ICB for the DAX, GICS for MSCI, with different assignments such as Siemens Energy.
• Return version: The DAX is quoted mainly gross as a performance index, while MSCI factsheets lead with the net return index after a flat withholding tax. For comparisons, you need matching versions.

Liquid and screened, but narrowly spread: weighing up the DAX

DAX funds: which version they track and how they fit next to a world fund

In Europe, physically replicating UCITS ETFs track the DAX; most are measured against the net return index, even though the news quotes the performance index. The UCITS limits for single holdings (5/10/40) do not fit the 15% cap, which is why STOXX also calculates capped variants such as the DAX 10% Capped and a variant following the UCITS limits (DAX Methodology 2026). When you compare DAX funds, check which version they track.

You can try out in the backtest how a DAX fund behaves next to a world fund. The look-through shows how much Germany, industrials or Siemens your portfolio holds in total when you combine a DAX fund with a world fund. A world fund already holds a small share of German stocks; any DAX fund on top is a deliberate overweight.

This article explains a method; it is not investment or tax advice. Worked examples are simplified and rounded. All terms in the glossary.