(new: share price, more details and background)

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Continental shares defied the gloomy mood in the European automotive industry on Monday. After the automotive supplier and tire manufacturer surprised positively with its quarterly figures and did not lower its forecast for the automotive supply sector again after all, the shares jumped 9.3 percent to 61.74 euros at the start of trading. This was the highest level since the end of October.

By midday, Continental shares had risen by a good 7 percent. This put them at the top of Germany's leading index, the Dax, which rose by 1.3 percent.

At Continental, cost reductions due to job cuts in the automotive supply business had an impact, as did price increases for customers. In addition, the tire business is running smoothly.

Analysts were correspondingly positive. For example, expert David Lesne from the major Swiss bank UBS attested to the company's industry-leading performance in the automotive supply and tire sectors. Market expectations are likely to increase in the low to mid single-digit percentage range.

Analyst Alexander Wahl from the investment bank Stifel sees the confirmed annual target for profitability in the automotive sector as a "major positive surprise". Like many others, he had feared a reduction. Now everything points to a strong margin in the fourth quarter.

Overall, Continental's strength comes from the tire business, analyzed expert Harry Martin from Bernstein Research. Among other things, the division benefited from a good start to the winter tire business. Conti intends to expand production in Thailand.

The tire business is also going well at competitor Bridgestone, added Martin. The Japanese company surprised positively with its operating result in the third quarter. The reasons for this were volume stabilization and strength in high-margin special tires and the business with complementary solutions for mining and aviation. Bridgestone shares had risen by 1.4 percent in Tokyo, while the leading Japanese index Nikkei 225 had hardly moved.

Analyst Michael Aspinall from investment house Jefferies emphasized that Continental had commented positively on the planned spin-off of the automotive supply business by the end of next year. This has long been the problem child in the corporation. CEO Nikolai Setzer wants to trim the business for profitability with around 7,150 job cuts in administration and research and development. He is planning to spin off the division on the stock exchange; the examinations are still ongoing.

In general, automotive suppliers are suffering from the high costs of the transition to electromobility. Customers, i.e. car manufacturers, are also suffering from weak business in China and concerns that the new US President Donald Trump will impose punitive tariffs on imports of European cars. Against this backdrop, the European sector index for automotive stocks slumped to its lowest level since December 2022 last Wednesday.

The jump in share prices on Monday has suddenly brightened the technical picture for Conti shares. They are now trading well above the 21-day and 50-day moving averages, which describe the short and medium-term trends respectively. The next resistance is now the much-noticed 200-day line as an indicator of the long-term trend. This runs almost exactly along the daily high./la/men/jha/

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