BERLIN, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- German stocks were off to a good start on Friday, with the benchmark DAX index increasing by 124.42 points, or 0.93 percent, opening at 13,512.84 points.

The biggest winner among Germany's largest 30 companies at the start of trading was chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer with a 2.31 percent rise, followed by payment services provider Wirecard with 2.15 percent and chip manufacturer Infineon with 1.81 percent.

According to media reports, Bayer is on the verge of settling the glyphosate trial in the United States for 10 billion U.S. dollars. The company is facing more than 42,000 individual lawsuits over potentially carcinogenic effects of weed killer products of Monsanto, which Bayer acquired in 2018.

Shares of Continental fell by 0.90 percent. The German automotive supplier was the biggest loser at the start of trading on Friday.

German media reported on Thursday that Continental had set more than 300 workers to short-time work in one of its factories due to declining demand from the car industry.

On Friday, the regional German court in Munich is scheduled to decide whether a mass lawsuit against MAN, Daimler and other truck manufacturers for illegal price fixing was admissible. Altogether 3,000 logistic companies are demanding compensation worth 867 million euros (958 million U.S. dollars).

The euro was trading at 1.1056 U.S. dollars, decreasing slightly by 0.01 percent on Friday morning. Enditem

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