German benchmark DAX index slips 0.62%

The benchmark DAX index at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange lost 59.95 points on Wednesday, down by 0.62 percent.
The DAX reached the highest level of the trading day of 9704.41 points in the afternoon, but slipped soon in the negative territory after the opening of the U.S. Stock markets, closing at 9593.68 points.
"The Eastern European crisis still weighs on the index... and investors are waiting for the rate decisions of the U.S. Federal Reserve in the evening," said the German business daily in a report.
The Chemical and pharmaceutical companies Bayer AG and Merck KGaA led the list of the risers on Wednesday with an increase of 1.53 percent and 1.24 percent respectively. The health care company Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. went up by 1.10 percent, followed by ThyssenKrupp AG and Deutsche Post AG, up by 0.42 percent and 0.41 percent.
The semiconductor producer Infineon Technologies AG led the fallers' list, down by 3.50 percent. HeidelbergCement AG, one of the world's biggest producers of cement, concrete and construction materials, gained the most of 1.60 percent on Tuesday, lost 2.83 percent. The utilities company RWE AG St, E.ON AG and BASF SE also dropped by 2.32 percent, 1.94 percent and 1.52 percent respectively.
The turnover stood at 2.79 billion euros (around 3.75 billion U.S. dollars).