FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The bull market in the shares of nationalized utility Uniper continued on Wednesday. For the first time since the end of November 2022, the securities cost more than six euros again in the morning, peaking at 6.164 euros, thus recording an increase of almost 16 percent compared to the Xetra close on Tuesday.

The shares thus closed the gap in the share price that had opened up at the end of November following reports of a further large capital increase. This had become necessary because the supplier had stumbled due to a lack of Russian gas supplies and had to buy gas at a high price. The background to this is the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia by the Western community of states as a result, which is why Russia first restricted and then stopped direct supplies to Germany. In the meantime, however, the price of European natural gas has returned to its pre-war level.

Uniper had said the previous week that, thanks to hedging transactions, it expected to make "significant gains from the replacement of gas volumes" for Russian supply cuts. Further equity capital increases from the federal government would therefore no longer be necessary, the statement continued.

This was initially enough to lift the share price back above the four euro mark with double-digit percentage growth. At the beginning of this week, further investors jumped on the bandwagon and pushed the share price above five euros the previous day for the first time since November.

With the current gain to more than six euros, the shares are now scratching the exponential 200-day line, which is regarded by investors interested in the chart as an indicator of the longer-term trend. Since the company's announcement last week, the share price has currently gained around 62 percent and, starting from the record low of EUR 2.09 at the end of December 2022, the price has almost tripled.

Investors are now also speculating on a re-privatization of the company rescued from the gas crisis by the German government, as CFO Jutta Donges had proclaimed the goal of returning Uniper as an independent company to predominantly private hands as quickly as possible./ajx/ag/tih/mis