By Matt Andrejczak and Dan Gallagher, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Tech stocks rose to moderate
gains by early Thursday afternoon, led higher by upswings at
BlackBerry Inc. and eBay Inc.
BlackBerry (RIMM) were last up 2.4% to $14.92 after the
smartphone maker reported a surprise fourth-quarter profit of $98
million with 1 million units of its new Z10 smartphone shipped. The
company lost about 3 million subscribers for the period,
however.
EBay (EBAY) shares rose about 2.3% to $53.35 as the company
conveyed its analyst meeting and outlined its plans to double its
user base.
Red Hat (RHT) shares gained a fraction; despite sales falling
shy of Wall Street's estimate. The maker of open-source software
posted a fourth-quarter profit of $43 million, up from $36 million
in the year-ago period.
Paychex (PAYX) also gained a fraction after posting a quarterly
profit of $144.5 million.
Overall, the broader technology sector inched lower, with the
Morgan Stanley High-Tech Index(MSH) and the Philadelphia
Semiconductor Index (SOX) both up about 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite
(RIXF) made a fractional gain to 3,260.
Tech stocks are poised to end the first quarter with a gain.
The Morgan Stanley High-Tech Index is up 7% so far for the
quarter that ends today, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index
13%. By comparison, the Nasdaq Composite is up 8% for the
quarter.
Among the large tech companies, the top gainers for the first
quarter are:
--Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) : 65%.
--Dell (DELL) : 41%.
--BlackBerry: 26%.
--Yahoo (YHOO) : 19%.
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