FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Shares in the opticians' chain Fielmann successively extended their gains on Friday, reaching their highest level since the end of July at late noon. They thus broke through the downward trend that began in mid-July to the upside. This was driven by an increase in forecasts. According to DZ Bank, however, the extent of the increase was somewhat less than hoped for, because the decision was presumably made in favor of a conservative forecast.

In the afternoon, Fielmann shares, as the clear leader of the small cap index SDax, rose against the market trend by 8.5 percent to 46.98 euros. After initially crossing the 21-day line as a signal for the short-term trend, they are now also testing the 50-day line for the medium-term trend with the current gain.

The optical chain expects more sales for the current year following the completion of the acquisition of U.S. competitor SVS Vision. Fielmann completed the acquisition on Thursday and will consolidate the US company from September 1.

The analysts at Alster Research consider the opticians' market to be attractive in general, and the latest business figures of competitor Mister Spex had also demonstrated this. The papers of the online optician had reacted to the business figures on Thursday with strong growth. Before the weekend, they recently traded moderately higher./ajx/bek/mis