FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Grenke shares, which have performed poorly since the beginning of the year, received a significant boost on Wednesday. Thanks to the significant increase in new business, the shares of the leasing specialist from Baden-Baden rose by 11.5 percent to 23.35 euros by midday. This put them clearly ahead of the second-line index SDax. This index has only seen moderate gains recently.

At the peak, Grenke shares soared by a good 13 percent to 23.70 euros. This was the highest level since the beginning of April.

Grenke benefited from growth in Southern Europe in particular. With the new contracts, profits from these businesses also increased.

Borsianer spoke of solid preliminary results. Analyst Marius Fuhrberg from Warburg Research praised the Baden-Baden-based company for recording its strongest quarter ever in terms of new business, as he had expected. Grenke should be able to return to sustainable growth. The reported figures are therefore good news, especially as the leasing specialist is already almost halfway to the lower end of the annual forecast in terms of new business after the first half of the year.

From a technical chart perspective, the picture has brightened considerably with the jump in the share price in the middle of the week. Grenke shares broke above both the 50-day average line, which describes the medium-term trend, and the exponential 200-day line. This is a measure of the long-term trend and gives more weight to the more recent closing prices than the older ones. Nevertheless, the shares are still a long way off the highs of over EUR 100 from 2018.

Since the beginning of the year, Grenke shares are still down almost seven percent. The SDax has gained a good three percent in this period./la/ag/jha/