German stocks fell on Tuesday as Chancellor Angela Merkel and regional leaders of 16 federal states agreed late Monday to impose a hard lockdown during Easter amid an exponential growth in the number of coronavirus cases in the country, in what is being called a "third wave".
Shops, grocery stores and other establishments will remain shut from April 1 for five days. Churches must conduct prayer services online. Food stores will be allowed to open on April 3, Saturday.
The government also decided to apply the hard lockdown "emergency brake" in regions with an incidence value above 100 for a seven-day period.
Germany also extended the current lockdown measures, which includes partial shutdown of non-essential stores, until April 18.
"We are in a very, very serious situation", Merkel said in a press conference following her meeting with the regional leaders. She said there is a new pandemic caused by a new virus which is more deadly and more infectious.
The benchmark DAX dropped 67 points, or half a percent, to 14,589 after rising 0.3 percent in the previous session.
Nordex surged 4.3 percent after the wind turbine manufacturer said it expects the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on its business to be reduced from the second quarter onwards.
Home improvement superstore operator Hornbach Group edged up slightly. The company said that its net sales for full-year 2020 were up 15.4 percent to 5.5 billion euros from 4.7 billion euros in the previous year.
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