FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - After a weak start to trading, shares in chip companies such as Infineon, Siltronic and STMicro did make gains on Thursday.

The papers of STMicroelectronics extended their gains to more than seven percent by the afternoon. The French-Italian company, like the rest of the industry, is feeling the effects of a reluctance on the part of many consumers to buy consumer electronics. But management stressed in a conference call with analysts on the quarterly figures that it sees no signs of weakness in chips for the automotive and industrial sectors. This is supporting selling prices.

For the STM rival Infineon, it went up in tow in the Dax by five percent to 38.70 euros. The shares could now soon break out above the resistance around 39 euros, which they had bounced off several times since June.

Shares in German chip industry supplier Siltronic were last trading up 0.8 percent at 76.65 euros, after initial losses of more than five percent. The semiconductor wafer manufacturer surprised on the upside with its second-quarter operating profit (Ebit), analyst Constantin Hesse of investment house Jefferies wrote in a research note. He said the firmed-up full-year outlook implies a lowering of earnings expectations in the market, but the continued weakness in demand in the second half of the year had already been expected and communicated by the company.

With regard to the various customer groups, Siltronic CEO Michael Heckmeier also explained in a conference call with analysts that manufacturers of memory chips in particular had started reducing high inventories, in some cases quite late. As a result, the process in this area is likely to drag on until 2024. Meanwhile, producers of logic chips, who are also benefiting from the artificial intelligence trend, have made further progress. The situation looks more robust overall for power semiconductors, which have to control high currents and voltages in electric cars and industry, for example.

This gives Siltronic an annual increase of more than twelve percent. Since a sharp slide in the share price in the first half of 2022, when a takeover by the Taiwanese company GlobalWafers failed due to resistance from the authorities and, in addition, the current market weakness became increasingly apparent, the share price has mostly hovered between 60 and 80 euros. The papers fluctuate strongly anyway, almost in step with the traditional ups and downs of the chip industry.

The papers of Elmos Semiconductor stemmed their losses. Most recently, the share still gave up about one percent, after the price had fallen by almost nine percent in early trading./mis/zb/jha/