FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The positive assessment of an analyst boosted Hochtief shares on Monday. The construction group's shares rose by more than 9 percent to 108.40 euros. The analyst firm Jefferies had previously upgraded them from "hold" to "buy" and raised the price target from 109 to 124 euros.

Hochtief thus climbed to its highest level since the end of March, approaching the annual high of 111.90 euros reached shortly before. In the late afternoon, the shares were still up 8.4 percent at 107.50 euros. With the jump in the share price, the shares of the MDax-listed company have also worked their way out of the minus of the current calendar year: Since the beginning of the year, they are now back up by more than 7 percent.

In addition, the chart picture brightened noticeably, as the share price jump on Monday enabled the shares to cross several trend lines for the short, medium and long-term development, including the much-noticed 200-day line.

Jefferies analyst Graham Hunt expects "hot earnings growth" from Hochtief - alluding to the stock's abbreviation "HOT". Among the stocks he follows, the Essen-based company is the best choice to bet on the growing demand for global data center capacities. They are number one worldwide in this area, the expert wrote in the study.

Hunt expects earnings growth to accelerate as Hochtief begins to benefit from a stronger commitment to high-tech infrastructure projects. These offer an attractive mix of higher margins and lower risk. According to the expert, rising market entry barriers are also playing into the hands of established companies such as Hochtief./lfi/ajx/mis