The long-suffering shareholders of online companies have reason to celebrate on Tuesday.

While the shares of the food delivery service Delivery Hero and the meal kit provider Hellofresh were supported by a positive analyst study, the internet fashion retailer About You benefited from pleasing business figures.

The About You competitor Zalando and Shop Apotheke were also in demand.

In the early afternoon, Delivery Hero was at the top of the Dax with a price jump of more than nine percent.

Hellofresh followed directly behind with an increase of over seven percent.

For Zalando it went up by three percent above average.

In the S-Dax small-cap index, About You was one of the investors' favorites thanks to a price increase of almost seven percent, while Shop Apotheke rose by around three percent.

Rather weak development so far

However, the shares also have in common the weak price development in the course of the year to date.

For Delivery Hero and Hellofresh there are still losses of 57 and 36 percent - no other Dax title has performed so poorly in this period.

At Zalando, things are only slightly better with a drop of 31 percent.

About You and Shop Apotheke occupy lower places in the S-Dax with discounts of 40 and 26 percent.

A look at the course of the share price since the outbreak of the corona pandemic around two years ago, which has given online purchases a huge boost at the expense of stationary retail, shows a somewhat more differentiated picture: While Hellofresh and Shop Apotheke have fallen by more than two thirds and Zalando by more than two thirds have increased by almost half, Delivery Hero has lost almost 40 percent.

The Berlin company gave a rather disappointing outlook for the year in February and is still the only Dax member not to be in the black.

Changing consumer habits

French bank Exane BNP Paribas abandoned its cautious stance on food suppliers on Tuesday.

His skepticism is now reflected in the significantly lower market expectations, wrote analyst Andrew Gwynn.

Now is the time to take a more positive look at the industry.

Above all, changed consumer habits could ensure a price recovery, argues the expert.

Gwynn upgraded Hellofresh and Delivery Hero competitor Just Eat Takeaway to a positive "Outperform" and believes the shares will outperform the sector as a whole over the year.

For Delivery Hero, he gave up his previous pessimism by expecting a price development in line with the industry.

However, his favorite is the British representative Deliveroo, whose shares rose by more than six and a half percent in London.

About You followed the online industry rally, but also met with a positive response with key data for the past year.

The enthusiasm among experts was limited.

But the numbers were probably better than expected by some speculatively oriented investors, explained expert Georgina Johanan from the US bank JPMorgan.

There are currently a relatively large number of speculators with the paper who have bet on falling prices.

Despite the geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe, where the company has a strong presence, statements from management indicated that sales trends are not as bad as feared.