Salzgitter sees pretax profit in upper end of guidance range

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's second-largest steelmaker Salzgitter said on Monday it is expecting a 2019 pretax profit in the upper end of its 125 million to 175 million euros guidance (£107 million to £151 million), sending shares higher.

Despite the unstable economic situation, revising the forecast would be premature at present, the company said in a statement. "At the same time, we are currently anticipating a result more in the upper end of the range."

For the first quarter, Salzgitter reported a pretax profit of 125.9 million euros, up from 95.9 million a year ago.

Shares rose as much as 4.4 percent and were up 2 percent at 1358 GMT.

(Reporting by Thomas Seythal; editing by Tassilo Hummel)