22/05/25 11:28:10

Certificates: Focus on tech and defense stocks

Tesla, Amazon, Netflix - the focus is once again on US tech stocks, but interest in Rheinmetall remains high. The price of gold is also attracting a lot of attention.


22 May 2025 FRANKFURT (Börse Frankfurt). Armaments boom, Nasdaq recovery and gold price rally dominate certificate trading. “Not surprisingly, given the market situation, defense and tech stocks did well, but also gold,” reports Simon Görich, who trades certificates for Baader Bank. According to ICF trader Markus Königer, ICF Bank is also focusing a lot on Rheinmetall, tech stocks and gold, as well as oil and the euro/US dollar currency pair, in addition to the major share indices. The picture is similar at HSBC: Julius Weiß reports the highest turnover in certificates on the Nasdaq, gold and DAX. “In terms of individual stocks, as is so often the case, it's Rheinmetall, Nvidia, Tesla and Amazon,” he adds.

“New all-time highs provide tailwind”

Overall, the certificate business is currently somewhat more leisurely. “After the exciting times with record turnover at the beginning and middle of April, the situation has calmed down somewhat,” explains Weiß. Nevertheless, trading activity is still quite high. “The new all-time highs are certainly providing a tailwind.” Added to this is the quarterly season, with more turnover in individual shares. “The temporarily high volatility also ensured good conditions for investment products,” he notes.

The highest-turnover product on an index at HSBC was the open-end knock-out call on the Nasdaq 100 (DE000HT4X4J1) with a knock-out at 19,939 points. At ICF, open-end knock-out calls on the DAX (DE000DY762E5, DE000HT4R4M3), the Nasdaq and Dow Jones, and sometimes also open-end knock-out puts on the Nasdaq (<DE000PL8SG38>) recorded high turnover.

Julius Weiß

Discount certificates also popular

What is striking about Rheinmetall is that discount certificates play a major role here. According to Königer, discount certificates with a cap of 1,000 or 1,200 euros (DE000DY4UL97, DE000DY5V8Q7) are popular, for example. The arms rally has driven the Rheinmetall share to ever new highs. The share price currently stands at €1,781 after €614 at the start of 2025 and €297 at the start of 2024.

Discount certificates on Nvidia (DE000DY277L9) are also in demand, as Königer observes. Mostly, however, open-end knock-out calls on Nvidia are also used. The other “Magnificent Seven” such as Tesla and Amazon are also popular underlyings, as is Netflix. Tesla shares more than halved after reaching a high in December, but have recently recovered somewhat.

At HSBC, products on Deutsche Telekom, Siemens Energy and Netflix are among the top sellers: a discount certificate on Deutsche Telekom with a cap of 32 euros, a discount of just under 10 percent and a term until October 2025 (DE000HT2NM98), a bonus cap certificate on Siemens Energy with a cap of 93 euros and a barrier of 45 euros (DE000HT2KB03) and a call warrant on Nvidia with a strike price of 950 US dollars and a term until December 2026 (DE000HS3XM71).

Gold as a “hedge”, crypto trackers with “lower turnover”

Gold is also an important underlying asset at the moment, as Görich reports, as a “hedging instrument”. The price of gold climbed to a new all-time high of just under USD 3,500 at the beginning of May and is currently still at USD 3,314. A gold price tracker from DZ Bank (DE000DZ0B666), which offers direct price participation with currency hedging, achieved the highest turnover at ICF. Open-end knock-out calls (DE000DY696G0) and puts (DE000PL0GHL6) are also well received.

The most traded individual product at ICF remains a crypto tracker: the tracker certificate on DER AKTIONÄR Krypto TSI (CH1171791515). The tracker certificate on BÖRSE ONLINE Best of Krypto (CH1171793321) also remains popular. “However, turnover in the crypto baskets has become somewhat thinner,” says Königer. Bitcoin has climbed to 111,774 US dollars today - a new all-time high.

By Anna-Maria Borse, 22 May 2025, © Deutsche Börse

Thomas Koch is a CEFA investment analyst, investment specialist for structured products and a certified certificate consultant. He has been a freelance journalist covering events on the capital markets since the beginning of 2006.

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