Apple’s shares have surged 131 percent this year, making it the second most-valuable technology company in the US, behind Microsoft.

Apple’s shares have surged 131 percent this year, making it the second most-valuable technology company in the US, behind Microsoft.

Record iPhone and Macintosh sales produced better than expected profits pushing up Apple’s fortunes.

Apple shares have done almost three times better than Microsoft’s this year and reached a record $205.20 on October 22. Yesterday, along with most of the market, they dropped back to $192.40

Still that gave Apple a market capitalisation of US$173.12 billion.

Microsoft, whose shares were at $28.02 , had a market cap of $248.8 billion ­ a difference of $75.7 billion.

For the record, IBM’s market cap was $159.17 billion; Dell ­ whose founder Michael Dell once famously said Apple should sell everything and give the money back to the shareholders ­ was worth just $28 billion.