FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Zalando shares became the biggest winners on the DAX on Wednesday. After an unmoving start, they moved into positive territory and extended their gains to almost six percent by lunchtime. At 32.60 euros, they reached their highest level since May 2023.

With an annual gain that has now more than halved, Zalando shares have built up a comfortable buffer to the four most important average indicator lines. The share price was the last to break away from the 50-day line.

A continued optimistic analyst opinion is likely to have contributed to the positive investor sentiment. The major British bank HSBC raised its target price from EUR 37 to EUR 40, which means that the implied upside potential has increased to around 23% despite the price jump on Wednesday.

Against this background, HSBC maintained its buy recommendation. The bank is thus in good company, as positive assessments clearly have the upper hand in the dpa-AFX analyst, with only one negative assessment by the analyst firm Bernstein. The experts at Hauck & Aufhäuser and Warburg as well as the leading analyst firm RBC, at 50 euros, have even more optimistic price targets.

However, this year's recovery follows a price slump that began three years ago and was followed by a period of gloom from the late summer of 2022. From a record high of just under 106 euros in 2021, when the coronavirus pandemic was playing into the hands of online retail, the share price slumped to a record low of just under 16 euros in January. For a while, it was therefore below the price of EUR 21.50 that shareholders had paid at the time of the Borsen IPO in 2014./tih/ag/jha/