Nokia warns on lower quarterly earnings

Nokia warned today second-quarter earnings would fall and sales could also drop as its patchy handset portfolio proves no match…

Nokia warned today second-quarter earnings would fall and sales could also drop as its patchy handset portfolio proves no match for tough competition.

Nokia said second-quarter earnings per share (EPS) would be between €0.13 and €0.15, well below the underlying figure of some €0.19 from a year ago and missing all expectations in a Reuters poll that called for an EPS of €0.18.

The outlook confirms analysts' fears that Nokia, which makes more than one in three handsets sold globally, could lose more market share to rivals such as US Motorola and Korea's Samsung Electronics, which earlier today posted record earnings.

Samsung said earlier it expects its market share in January-March to have risen by almost four percentage points to 14 per cent, with sales to continue rising in the second quarter.

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Nokia said that mobile phone volumes grew by a heady 29 per cent annually in the first quarter, but the company saw growth of only 19 per cent, hampered by the holes in its phones lineup.

Nokia shares were off 7.3 per cent at €12.50, dragging the Dow Jones Stoxx technology index 1.7 per cent into the red. They had earlier touched a 13-month low at €12.22.