Nokia's cut above

18 Oct 2007 By Una Galani Follow @ugalani

In a stunning third quarter, it increased profit margins despite falling prices for phones and upped global market share to 39%. Even its troubled network business is making progress. The only catch is the share price, which reflects a lot of good news.

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Nokia, the world's leading mobile phone maker, on Thursday reported 85% growth in net profit to E1.56bn in the third quarter, beating analyst expectations.

Despite falls in the average selling price of handsets to E82 from E90 in the previous quarter, mobile operating margins rose to 23% from 21%. Nokia sold 112m phones, roughly as many as its three closest rivals combined, and grew its market share to 39%.

Earlier in the week, Swedish rival Ericsson blamed a slowdown in network upgrades for a profit warning which knocked a quarter off the group's shares.

Nokia shares rose as much as 7.5% to E27.15.

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