By Adria Calatayud
A.P. Moller-Maersk shares traded higher after the Danish shipping group lifted its full-year guidance, citing continued strong demand and a sustained increase in freight rates.
Shares in Maersk rose as much as 5.4% in early European morning trading before pulling back, adding to gains since the start of the year.
The company raised its guidance for full-year underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to between $8 billion and $10 billion from $4.5 billion to $7 billion previously.
It also increased its outlook for this year's underlying earnings before interest and taxes to between $2 billion and $4 billion. The company had previously forecast the metric to range from a $1.5 billion loss to a $1 billion profit.
The company's new guidance is based on expectations of volume growth in the global container market of about 4%, against a previous forecast of 2% to 4%, it said. Maersk said demand was particularly strong in East Asia.
Maersk's outlook increase seems driven by Western importers rushing to get goods from East Asia ahead of U.S. President Trump's latest tariffs due to take effect in late July, AlphaValue analysts said in a note.
Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com