HTC has jumped ahead of Nokia in total value on the share market amid a Japanese post-disaster financial push.The Taiwanese HTC Corporation rode the wave of Taiwan’s overnight stock rise, with Taiwanese stocks rising 1.69 percent to reach a two-month closing high.
The smartphone maker saw a share rise of 5.26 percent, moving the total market cap of the company to US$33.8 billion, ahead of Nokia’s US$32.84 billion.
The sudden value burst is believed to part of Japan’s efforts to pull its economy out of the post-disaster slump.
“Japan will be pumping lots of money into its financial system, which would lure foreign investors back to emerging markets such as South Korea and Taiwan,” said Robert Hsieh, an assistant vice president at Shin Kong Financial’s fund arm.
HTC began as a manufacturer for other large phone companies who rebadged the phones under their own brands, but the company moved to marketing its own brand in the last few years. Since then it has experienced high levels of growth in a relatively short span.
Nokia has been losing market share to companies that have driven their phones on the popularity of Android and Apple’s iOS products, with the Symbian OS used on Nokia phones losing popularity.
Swedish bank Swedbank has lowered its recommendation for shares in Nokia this week in the wake of the Japanese crisis and Nokia’s negotiations with Microsoft on a software deal.
“We fear disappointing market share development and the crisis in Japan will lead a new set of estimate downgrades,” said analyst from Swedbank, Jari Honko.
