BERLIN, March 9 (Xinhua) -- German stocks were almost unchanged at the start of trading on Tuesday, with the benchmark DAX index losing 35.4 points, or 24.6 percent, opening at 14,345.51 points.

The biggest winner among Germany's 30 largest listed companies at the start of trading was utility RWE, increasing by 0.86 percent, followed by pharmaceutical giant Bayer with 0.75 percent and sportswear manufacturer Adidas with 0.64 percent.

Shares of Continental fell by 5.09 percent. The German automotive supplier was the biggest loser at the start of trading on Tuesday after sales declined by almost 7 billion euros (around 8.3 billion U.S. dollars) in fiscal 2020, amounting to 37 billion euros (44.03 billion dollars) in a "historically weak market environment."

On Tuesday, German mail and logistics company Deutsche Post posted record figures for financial 2020, with revenues increasing by 5 percent to 66.8 billion euros (79.5 billion dollars). Growth was "primarily driven by the global e-commerce boom, which led to considerably higher shipment volumes in the parcel and express business," according to the company.

German exports in January grew by 1.4 percent on the previous month to 98.1 billion euros (116.75 billion dollars), but were still down 8.9 percent year-on-year, Germany's Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Tuesday. German imports in January lost 4.7 percent on the previous month and were down 9.8 percent year-on-year, totaling 83.8 billion euros (99.73 billion dollars).

The yield on German ten-year bonds went down 0.020 percentage points to minus 0.298 percent, and the euro was trading almost unchanged at 1.1851 dollars, increasing by 0.01 percent on Tuesday morning.