German shares were showing strong gains in late morning on the Frankfurt stock exchange, driven by a rebound in auto sector stocks.

At around 0945 GMT, the blue-chip DAX 30 index rose 3.1 percent to hit an intraday high of 9,716.56 points, with BMW shares adding 4.7 percent, Daimler shares up 4.5 percent and Volkswagen shares gaining 2.1 percent.