FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The planned changes to the composition of the most important Dax indices caused a lot of price movement on Wednesday. Market participants were particularly surprised by the ejection of the catering equipment supplier Rational, which will have to leave the MDax in March and no longer meets the criteria of the German Stock Exchange for other selection indices.

Rational shares were pushed to the bottom of the mid-cap index immediately after the start of trading and fell below the 700 euro mark to their lowest level since mid-January. Most recently, the drop amounted to four percent.

Meanwhile, RBC analyst Sebastian Kuenne assumes that Rational's expulsion from the MDax is only temporary. As its Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Hans Maerz, has now been in office for more than twelve years, he is no longer considered an independent member according to the criteria of Deutsche Borse, he wrote in a recent study, referring to a conversation with the company. However, März will not be standing for re-election at the AGM in May, which means that Rational could probably return to the mid-cap index.

MDax relegated Vitesco also lost more than one percent. In the course of the takeover by major shareholder Schaeffler, the proportion of freely tradable shares in the electric drive specialist fell significantly.

Bilfinger shares were among the beneficiaries of the index reorganization, gaining two percent. The industrial services provider was promoted from the small-cap index SDax to the MDax. In the SDax, the shares of the radiation expert Eckert & Ziegler (+4.8%) and the shares of the semiconductor industry equipment supplier Süss Microtec (+2.9%) also attracted attention with high premiums. Both were included in the TecDax.

Drug researcher Morphosys returns to the MDax, but its share price has recently been treading water. Borsians cite the ongoing takeover bid by the Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis as a possible reason, which intends to take the Bavarian company completely off the stock market if it is successful. Since the deal was announced at the beginning of February, the Morphosys share price has barely budged and is hovering around 65 euros. The Novartis offer is even higher at 68 euros per share.

All index changes will take effect on March 18. They are particularly important for fund providers that replicate indices in real terms, for example in the form of exchange-traded index funds. They will then have to rebalance accordingly, which - as is currently the case - can have an impact on share prices. Meanwhile, everything remains the same in the leading Dax index./tav/bek/stw