Hewlett-Packard has added $1 billion (£680 million) to its stock buyback programme. The second biggest computer maker after IBM said about $500 million remained under an earlier buyback authorisation, bringing the total amount it could repurchase to $1.5 billion.

Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard had $3.07 billion in cash at the end of its fiscal fourth quarter, up from $2.89 billion in the year-ago period. It said the buyback was to offset dilution from the exercise of stock options issued to employees. Since 1994, HewlettPackard has bought 74.7 million of its shares.