FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Aroundtown 's half-year figures encouraged investors on Wednesday. After the real estate group became slightly more optimistic about its operating result (FFO I) for the full year, the shares took the lead in the SDax, rising by 7.2 percent at last count. At the day's high of 1.54 euros, they knocked on the previous interim high of 1.57 euros, which is almost three weeks old.

The recovery of the shares from the record low in July, which had recently been on shaky ground, thus received a new boost. However, the annual minus is still 30 percent. Since the interim high in June 2021, the losses have even added up to around 80 percent. In the middle of the year, the shares had at times become a "penny stock", i.e. a share with a price of less than one euro.

With the rise on Wednesday, the shares stood out positively from the sector environment, as the European sub-index Stoxx Europe 600 Real Estate was only able to continue its recent recovery to a limited extent. Real estate investors are likely to pay particular attention on Wednesday to new findings on inflation in Germany, which send signals of the monetary policy pressure under which the European Central Bank (ECB) is. The real estate sector has been suffering badly from high interest rates for months.

Traders, meanwhile, were not surprised by Aroundtown's billion-dollar bottom-line loss, which is linked to a devaluation of its real estate portfolio. According to expert Andre Remke of Baader Bank, however, the operating performance in the first half of the year was somewhat better than he had thought. The portfolio devaluation was in line with expectations, he said. Expert Kai Klose of Berenberg Bank also considered his forecasts to have been exceeded.

For the full year, Aroundtown now expects FFO I earnings to come in at 310 million to 340 million euros. The range is thus ten million euros higher at both ends than previously envisaged. "The pursuit of a higher earnings level was clearly unexpected and a positive surprise," said Berenberg expert Klose. However, he thinks investors will continue to focus heavily on Aroundtown's asset performance and financial profile.

As for German inflation figures this Wednesday, experts expect a month-on-month increase. Consumer price data from some German states, already released this morning, underpinned this. In the fight against inflation, the ECB had raised the key interest rate sharply in recent months. Companies such as Aroundtown must therefore significantly correct the portfolio values inflated during years of zero interest rates. In addition, refinancing is becoming more expensive./tih/ajx/mis