Infineon Technologies today beat expectations for its quarterly operating loss, which narrowed from the previous three months, confirming an improving trend in the semiconductor sector.
Infineon's shares were trading up 3.7 per cent at €24 on the Instinet electronic broking platform.
The Munich-based company's loss before interest and tax in the three months ended March 31st fell to €178 million from 564 million - while sales rose 34 per cent to €1.39 billion.
Analysts had forecast an average operating loss of €312 million and sales of €1.24 billion at Europe's second largest chip maker.
There are increasing signals for an overall positive development of demand, said Infineon in a statement, although it added it expects the market for the next six months to remain somewhat uncertain dependent on an economic recovery worldwide.
Infineon forecast ongoing pricing pressure in most of its business units in the months ahead amid tough competition.
The results confirmed a positive picture emerging from the sector. Europe's number one STMicroelectronics said yesterday it expects sales in the current quarter to rise 10 per cent higher from the previous three months.
Other chipmakers - Intel Corp., Texas Instruments and Philips - in their quarterly results have signalled that the semiconductor sector may be turning again to growth, albeit gradually.
Last year was the worst year for the semiconductor sector with global sales falling about 30 per cent amid massive overcapacity and weak demand.