Mobile phone maker Nokia raised its third-quarter sales and profit forecasts on Tuesday, saying demand was strong and average sale prices for its handsets were holding up better than it had expected.
Nokia said it now saw third-quarter net sales at 8.4 billion to 8.5 billion euros ($10.35 billion-$10.5 billion), compared to its previous projection of 7.9 billion to 8.2 billion euros.
"The mobile device market has continued to be strong and Nokia delivery volumes of mobile devices in the third quarter are anticipated to exceed its earlier expectations," the Finnish group said in a statement.
Nokia's shares jumped on the news and were up 5.1 percent to 13.71 euros by 1351 GMT, having hit 13.95 earlier in the day.
It said stronger-than-expected sales in July and August, cost controls and one-off gains of about 1 euro cent per share would result in third-quarter diluted EPS of 18-19 euro cents. Nokia shocked investors in July with a weak third-quarter earnings forecast of 14-17 cents per share after fierce price competition hit its second quarter. Analysts had previously projected 20 euro cents for July to September.
Chief Financial Officer Rick Simonson said Nokia expected operating margins for its mobile devices businesses to be higher in the third quarter than in the previous three months.
And its share of the mobile phone market was increasing from the April-to-June quarter and a year ago, he told a conference call. Nokia's share was 31.9 percent in the second quarter, according to researchers Gartner.
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