MILAN, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Italian clothing chain OVS reported on Wednesday a rebound in quarterly sales and adjusted core profit well above pre-pandemic levels, sending its shares up more than 10%. OVS, which had lost almost 70% of its market value between February and March 2020 when Italy became the first western country to impose a nationwide lockdown to stem COVID contagion, posted a 35.4% year-on-year rise in sales for the quarter ending on July 31. Revenues in May-July were up 11% from the levels of the second quarter of 2019, with online sales continuing to expand even as stores reopened, it said. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 50.9% in the second quarter to a record 54.5 million euros. Robust cash generation and a recently completed 157 million euro capital increase allowed OVS to improve its financial position by 95 million euros compared with July 2019. Even without taking into account the capital increase, “we have fully absorbed the cash loss caused by the 2020 closures ... and we now have sufficient resources to explore all the M&A opportunities offered by the market in the short and medium term,” Chief Executive Stefano Beraldo said in a statement. (Reporting by Francesca Landini; editing by Valentina Za)