Helsinki: Finnish mobile telephone giant Nokia Corp. reported a 58.6-per cent increase in profits on Thursday, surprising the market which marked the stock up 17 percent. Helped by a buoyant third quarter, net profit for the first nine months of the year jumped 58.6 per cent year-on-year to 2.73 billion euros (2.32 billion dollars), it said.Nokia shares, which had fallen in previous days, climbed 6.05 euros, or 17.0 percent to 41.65 euros. Investors had turned wary of the share on prospects that the rate of growth for the market for mobile telephones might slow down in view of signals to this effect from the US competitor Motorola.
Nokia President Jorma Ollila said that his company had gained ground in markets for new network technology and for mobile telephones, and the company stood by a target of 25-35 per cent sales growth in 2001. The firm repeated an estimate at the end of July that the total number of mobile telephones to be sold throughout the world this year would exceed 400 million.
Nokia also stood by a forecast made a year ago that a total one billion people would subscribe to mobile phone services in 2002, with 700 million subscribers by the end of this year.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.