FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Better than feared quarterly figures have catapulted Carl Zeiss Med itec shares to their highest level in nine months on Friday. The shares of the medical technology company briefly rose to just under 120 euros.

Ultimately, it continued its good run of the past three trading days with a price jump of 6.7 percent to 113.00 euros. This made it by far the top stock in the MDax, the index for medium-sized stocks, which hardly changed.

For the first time in more than a year, Zeiss has exceeded expectations and remains on course to achieve its annual targets, which investors had previously viewed with skepticism, praised analyst Graham Doyle of the major Swiss bank UBS. He is also confident that the inventory reduction in China will be completed in the second quarter.

Analysts from the US bank JPMorgan and Bernstein Research were also positive. Susannah Ludwig from Bernstein wrote that the strength in the microsurgery segment in particular had offset the expected headwinds in the China business. "Overall, the figures were decent given the low expectations," she also praised.

However, Ludwig calls for more clarity on the progress made in reducing inventories in China and believes explanations are needed on the causes of the considerable weakness in the Americas business. While sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa were the strongest on a currency-adjusted basis, the US business was particularly disappointing. Sales in the Asia-Pacific region remained constant after currency adjustments, but were negatively impacted by the unsurprising headwind in China.

JPMorgan analyst Anchal Verma wrote that sales and operating profit in the first quarter of the 2023/24 financial year were better than the market and she herself had feared. She now expects investors to focus on management's statements on the recovery in China and further margin development. She also pointed out that some market participants had recently bet on falling prices for Zeiss, so the clearly positive share price reaction is not surprising in her view./ck/jsl/men