An eight-day winning streak for Tesla Inc shares sent the world’s most valuable automaker into positive territory for the first time this year.

Tesla closed up 2.1% on Friday for its longest streak of consecutive daily gains in nearly a year. Over that span, the stock has gained 38%, adding US$220 billion in market capitalisation. Earlier this week, the rally got a boost from second-quarter deliveries that beat the average analyst estimate.

While analysts were positive about those stronger-than-expected deliveries, they marked the automaker’s first consecutive quarterly decline for deliveries for more than a decade. The carmaker on Tuesday said it delivered 443,956 vehicles in the second quarter, exceeding the average of 439,302 that analysts on Wall Street had estimated, but falling compared to prior quarters.

“The worst is in the rear-view mirror for Tesla,” Wedbush Securities Inc analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a Friday note. “Very importantly, it appears China saw a ‘mini rebound’ in the June quarter.”

A Chinese government statement said a number of state-owned companies in Shanghai have bought Tesla’s Model Y for business use. However, heightened competition in the country has kindled price wars and demand worries for the electric vehicle maker this year.

Tesla has had a tough year as chief executive officer Elon Musk announced major staff reductions in April, followed by additional cuts of as much as 20%. 

Tesla shares, which had been trading within a pretty tight range since early May, have finally broken out. The stock has blown past its 200-day moving average - a longer-term trend indicator that traders pay close attention to. Tesla shares had been down as much as 1.6% on Friday before closing higher.

To be sure, there is at least one technical measure suggesting a pullback might be around the corner. The rally has propelled the stock’s relative strength index (RSI), a gauge of bullish and bearish price momentum ranging from zero to 100, above 80 in recent days. 

Such an elevated RSI level is generally viewed as a signal that a decline is imminent, as buying has become excessive. 

  - Bloomberg