The leading German index opened 0.1 percent firmer at 16,727 points on Monday. "There is no trading on Wall Street today, so it should be relatively quiet on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange as well. However, the mood remains positive overall due to the rise in interest rate expectations," said Jochen Stanzl, chief analyst at broker CMC Markets. However, he urged caution. The Chinese central bank's interest rate decision earlier on Monday showed that expectations could be disappointed. "It had actually been expected to cut interest rates by ten basis points. However, this step failed to materialize."

Among the individual stocks in demand were shares in Commerzbank, which gained a good two percent following a media report. Deutsche Bank had played through the possibility of a takeover deal with Commerzbank and its Dutch rival ABN Amro, the Bloomberg news agency reported on Friday evening. Deutsche Bank shares were up slightly.

(Report by Zuzanna Szymanska. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)