FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Considerations of a possible entry into the booming armaments business boosted the shares of engine manufacturer Deutz on Monday. They jumped by more than 20 percent at the peak.

Armaments have been experiencing a boom since Russia's attack on Ukraine in February 2022. Countries' defense spending is on the rise. Other geopolitical trouble spots such as the war in Gaza in the Middle East are reinforcing this trend. Business for arms manufacturers is flourishing.

"Full order books of defense companies in geopolitically uncertain times are increasingly attracting companies that want to bring their expertise in the civilian sector into the military sector and get a piece of the big defense pie," explained capital market strategist Jürgen Molnar from the broker RoboMarkets.

Against this background, it is not surprising that Deutz shares, which are listed in the second-line index SDax, jumped to almost EUR 6 on Monday. At their highest level since mid-April, they thus ended their downward slide since that time and are now trading at the lower end of the price gap that emerged at that time. In order to close this gap, however, they would have to reach the EUR 6.10 mark. The recent price increase of 17.7 percent to 5.83 euros was not enough to achieve this.

Deutz is considering supplying engines for wheeled tanks, armored personnel carriers and supply vehicles, wrote the newspaper "Welt am Sonntag" after a conversation with CEO Sebastian Schulte. Battery storage systems for the stationary supply of military hospitals are also conceivable. "This is certainly an attractive field, it will bring about a turnaround," said the Deutz boss. "A broader positioning could better protect Deutz from the ups and downs of its cyclical core business," noted one dealer./ajx/gl/mis