Certificates: Focus on defense stocks – including second-tier stocks

Popular discount certificates

In the area of index investment certificates, discounters on the DAX continue to be in demand. The most popular at Société Générale is a discount certificate with a cap of 20,000 points (DE000SX01U63). Among the bank's favorite leveraged products is the factor long warrant with leverage of 9 (DE000SN8Z483). The ICF reports high turnover in mini future puts and calls (<DE000DY2FV54>, DE000HT4FZQ3) and open-end knock-out calls on the index (<DE000HT51GA0>).

Multiplication of defense stock prices attracts investors

In terms of individual stocks, Renk and Hensoldt are now attracting attention alongside Rheinmetall. All three stocks have fallen slightly recently, but their prices have still tripled since the beginning of the year. Apart from Nvidia and Tesla, tech stocks are no longer quite as high on the sales lists, according to Kesselhut. On the other hand, there is a striking amount of activity in products based on German stocks, including defense stocks as well as Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, Bayer, and SAP.

Here, too, discount certificates are in particularly high demand, as Kesselhut reports, often on German stocks such as Rheinmetall, Renk, or the banks. At ICF, discounters on Rheinmetall (DE000DY54H88, DE000DY4UL97) are also popular, as are bonus cap certificates on Hensoldt (DE000HT40KS7).

In the area of leveraged products, Kesselhut sees high sales for factor long warrants with leverage of 10 on Rheinmetall (DE000FA0DT73) and with leverage of 5 on Renk (DE000FA0DT65), as well as for open-end knock-out calls on Nvidia (DE000SW6HF43). ICF trader Königer mentions open-end knock-out calls on Rheinmetall (DE000PJ1PHH7) and Hensoldt (<DE000PJ2NR06 >) as well as call warrants on Hensoldt (DE000PC19XK0).

Many are betting on gold and oil

Gold is also an important underlying asset. In mid-June, the price of gold climbed to a new all-time high of just under US$3,500 amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, and currently stands at US$3,338. Oil has reacted even more strongly to the Israel-Iran war. The price of North Sea Brent briefly climbed above $78, but is now back down to $67.

According to Kesselhut, a factor long warrant on Brent Crude with a leverage of 3 (DE000SB3T5M4) is very popular, while according to Königer, open-end knock-outs, mostly calls, are popular. According to Kesselhut, there is also a lot of trading in open-end knock-out calls on gold, for example with a knock-out barrier at around $2,986 (DE000SJ5T3B3). The ICF also reports high turnover in open-end knock-outs on gold – especially bullish ones (DE000PJ1WN00>).

Popular crypto certificates terminated

In the trading of certificates on cryptocurrencies, there is a lot going on at ICF in a tracker product on the relatively unknown currency Hedera (CH1213604528). Two crypto certificates that have generated extremely high sales at ICF in recent months have been terminated by the issuer Leonteq Securities due to disagreements with the Swiss banking regulator Finma, as Königer reports: the tracker certificate on DER AKTIONÄR Krypto TSI (<CH1171791515>) and the tracker certificate on BÖRSE ONLINE Best of Krypto (>CH1171793321>). Another 60 certificates from the Swiss issuer were also terminated. The redemption date is July 2. New products based on cryptocurrencies are expected to follow shortly.

By Anna-Maria Borse, 26 June 2025, © Deutsche Börse