DaimlerChrysler, Siemens and Volkswagen: German Equity Preview

March 11 (Bloomberg) -- The following stocks may rise or fall in German markets. Stock symbols are in parentheses after the company names and prices are from the Xetra close unless otherwise stated.

Germany's X-DAX Index added 0.3 percent to 6711.3. The measure provides an estimate of the DAX Index, based on trading in DAX futures after the Xetra electronic market closes. The DAX advanced 3.29, or 0.1 percent, to 6716.52 on the Xetra system. The gauge climbed 1.7 percent last week.

BASF AG (BAS GY): The U.S. Department of Agriculture banned further planting and distribution of a variety of rice from BASF because its genes were contaminated with material not approved for commercialization. Shares of the world's largest chemical company added 25 cents, or 0.3 percent, to 78.71 euros.

CropEnergies AG (CE2 GY): The bioethanol producer is ``on target'' in all business areas and doubled revenue in the fiscal year ended in February, Wirtschaftswoche reported, citing an interview with the company's Chief Operating Officer Lutz Guderjahn. The shares advanced 6 cents, or 0.8 percent, to 8.01 euros.

DaimlerChrysler AG (DCX GY): The company's Chrysler unit is recalling about 478,000 Dodge Durango and Jeep Liberty sport- utility vehicles to repair heating-and-cooling blowers and an instrument-panel circuit.

Separately, the world's fifth-largest carmaker is planning to introduce two hybrid Mercedes-Benz models, Automobilwoche reported, citing the company's head of research and development Thomas Weber.

The shares rose 53 cents, or 1 percent, to 52.83 euros.

E.ON AG (EOA GY): Enel SpA, Italy's largest utility, may seek to increase its stake in Spain's Endesa SA to almost 30 percent, once Spanish takeover rules will allow it, a U.S. regulatory filing showed.

The company doesn't intend to tender its shares to E.ON, whose 41 billion-euro ($54 billion) bid for the Spanish company ends March 29, it said in the filing.

Shares of E.ON, the world's largest utility by sales, declined 47 cents, or 0.5 percent, to 99.52 euros.

IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG (IKB GY): The bank focusing on small and medium-sized companies aims to double its lending volume over the next 10 years, Stefan Ortseifen, IKB's speaker of the board, told Frankfurter Allgemeine Tageszeitung. The shares lost 23 cents, or 0.8 percent, to 29.30 euros.

Intershop AG (ISH2 GY): Chief Executive Officer Juergen Schoettler will leave the company at the end of his term on March 31, the maker of Internet-commerce software said after the market closed on March 9. The shares were unchanged at 1.72 euros.

KarstadtQuelle AG (KAR GY): Germany's biggest department- store chain will design its own collections and wants to compete with clothing chains such as Hennes & Mauritz and Zara, Welt am Sonntag reported, citing the company's Chief Executive Officer Thomas Middelhoff. The shares added 12 cents, or 0.5 percent, to 26.81 euros.

Linde AG (LIN GY): Airgas Inc., the largest packaged-gas distributor in the U.S., concluded the acquisition of Linde's U.S. bulk-gas business for $495 million after winning approval from federal antitrust regulators. Shares of Germany's biggest industrial gas maker climbed 1.39 euros, or 1.8 percent, to 79.02.

MLP AG (MLP GY): The financial-services broker sees no value in being taken over and wants to grow ``organically,'' the company's chairman told Boersen-Zeitung in an interview. Speculation the company may be a takeover target shows MLP is an attractive business model, the newspaper cited Uwe Schroeder- Wildberg as saying. The shares added 1 cent, or 0.1 percent, to 18.57 euros.

Pulsion Medical Systems AG (PUS GY), a maker of monitors for intensive-care units, said 2006 profit climbed 70 percent as it increased marketing efforts and developed new products. The shares gained 18 cents, or 2.6 percent, to 7.03 euros.

Solarworld AG (SWV GY): German renewable energy companies may employ twice as many people by 2020 because of new European Union targets to cut greenhouse gases, Die Welt reported, citing Frank Asbeck, chief executive officer of Solarworld.

Exports will benefit because European companies are seen as ``specialists'' in the field, according to the interview. Shares of Germany's second-largest solar-energy firm added 10 cents, or 0.2 percent, to 59.90 euros.

Siemens AG (SIE GY): Chief Executive Officer Klaus Kleinfeld is facing pressure from German carmakers who oppose a potential sale of the company's VDO automotive components unit to private equity firms, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung said, citing unidentified people in the industry. Shares of Europe's largest engineering company slid 8 cents, or 0.1 percent, to 80.01 euros.

Volkswagen AG (VOW GY): Europe's largest carmaker is paying each of the company's 94,000 employees a bonus of more than 2,200 euros, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported, citing the carmaker's personnel director Horst Neumann.

Separately, Thomas Bscher will resign as head of Volkswagen AG's Bugatti sportscar unit and may be replaced by Bentley chief Franz-Josef Paefgen, Spiegel reported, without saying where it got the information. Andreas Meurer, a spokesman for Volkswagen, declined to comment on the report when contacted by Bloomberg.

The shares rallied 3.05 euros, or 3.1 percent, to 103.05.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christiane Markwort in Frankfurt at

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