Global markets bolstered by best-ever quarter profits for Intel

US microchip manufacture Intel has buoyed markets across the globe today after it announced overnight that it has achieved its best-ever quarterly profits. The American technology giant released its second quarter update after Wall Street’s session closed yesterday which included the largest quarterly net income for the group in a decade thanks to a resurgent computer market. The news has pushed the Japan’s Nikkei more than 2.5 per cent, however the FTSE 100 is struggling to post gains with interdealer broker ICAP (LON:IAP) weighing the blue-chip index down.

Kate Neilson
shareprices.com - Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Printable version email to a friend Subscribe to shareprices.com newsfeed
Intel's record quarterly results have helped global markets

Intel led a season of results data from the US last night. Analysts had predicted uncomfortable reports due to the economic crisis in Europe but Intel kicked proceedings off with outstanding sales and profits results backed by a greater demand for its chips to be used in PC’s and servers.

For the three months ended 26 June, Intel made a profit of $2.9bn (£1.9bn) compared to a loss the year previous.

The results rippled on the London market with ARM Holdings (LON:ARM), the technology company that manufactures the microchips used in Apple’s new iPad and iPhone 4, hitting the top of the FTSE 100 gainers charts with a gain of 3.7 per cent and 12p at 10:00BST.

In fact, the Technology Hardware & Equipment sector is one of the outstanding sectors in the opening hours of today’s session, currently over 2.5 per cent up as a whole.

Despite this the FTSE is in negative territory with ICAP being the biggest single contributor to the losses for the top index. The broker released quarterly data for the weeks ended 30 June with a revenue growth of eight per cent and a profit increase of five per cent. However, the group said trading in the opening two months of the quarter were strong but then sank considerably in June due to a loss of customer risk appetite.

ICAP shares have plunged over five per cent as a result, losing over 20p.

Also contributing to the losses were banking stocks and BP (LON:BP). The latter posted a strong showing yesterday following the successful fitment of a new cap on the leaking deep-sea well in the Gulf of Mexico. But the share price has turned as the British-based group said it wouldn’t know if the cap is working for another 48 hours despite positive sentiments towards the new measures. BP is currently down 1.3 per cent.

Banking shares had posted good gains yesterday following more strong data from the US but have returned to the red in today’s session with Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) and Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) two per cent and one per cent down respectively. The losses are due to investors avoiding financial stocks because of growing concerns about new regulations being imposed by legislators in Basel.

Barclays (LON:BARC) was in positive territory in the opening moments of the session thanks to growing confidence for investment banking, but has since retreated to 0.6 per cent down.

The FTSE 100 index is down just 0.1 per cent, shedding five points at 10:00BST to drop to 5266.12.

 

Latest News

Related News

FTSE 100 Latest

ValueChange
5,266.41136.87  % fall