European chipmakers were among the strongest performers in midday trade on Thursday, as upbeat fourth-quarter earnings from STMicroelectronics (PA:STM) boosted the sector.
The Franco-Italian company said profit and revenue both rose in the final three months of 2018, thanks to double-digit growth in its automotive and power discrete units.
While it warned revenue will decline in the first quarter of this year, the company gave an upbeat forecast for the second half of 2019.
“Linked to what is specific to our company, we have a good confidence level to have a strong acceleration in second-half this year,” Chief Executive Officer Jean-Marc Chery said in a call with analysts.
Shares were up around 9% at 6:40AM ET (11:40 GMT).
The better-than-expected results delivered a boost to the tech sector. The pan-European Stoxx 600 Technology index was up 2.1%.
Shares of Austrian chipmaker AMS (SIX:AMS) surged 6.8%, while Infineon (DE:IFXGn) and ASML (AS:ASML) gained 5.4% and 3.8% respectively.
-- Reuters contributed to this report
