BERLIN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- German stocks were off to a good start on Wednesday, with the benchmark DAX index rising 66.25 points, or 0.53 percent, opening at 12,667.12 points.

The biggest winner among Germany's largest 30 companies at the start of trading was housing company Vonovia, increasing by 2.80 percent, followed by chemicals producer Covestro with 1.76 percent and building materials producer HeidelbergCement with 1.60 percent.

On Wednesday, Vonovia announced that adjusted EBITDA increased by 8 percent year-on-year to 942.2 million euros (1,114 million U.S. dollars) in the first half of the year. Operating earnings increased by 11 percent to 676.3 million euros.

Shares of BMW fell by 3.53 percent. The German car manufacturer was the biggest loser at the start of trading on Wednesday after announcing that net profit plummeted 82.5 percent year-on-year to 362 million euros during the first half of the current financial year.

On Wednesday, Deutsche Post DHL announced that revenues increased by 3.1 percent year-on-year to 16 billion euros in the second quarter while operating profit increased by 18.6 percent to 912 million euros in the same period.

German automotive supplier Continental announced on Wednesday that net income in the second quarter decreased from 485 million euros in 2019 to minus 741 million euros. "At the low point of the worst economic crisis experienced by the automotive industry since the end of the Second World War, we outperformed our markets," said Continental CEO Elmar Degenhart.

The yield on German 10-year bonds went up 0.001 percentage points to minus 0.550 percent, and the euro was trading almost unchanged at 1.1796 U.S. dollars, decreasing by 0.02 percent on Wednesday morning.