HP's profit up 26 pc
San Francisco: Hewlett-Packard Co reported a 26 pc jump in first-quarter profit on Tuesday, on the back of strong sales of laptops, printers and other products during the holiday season.

The company posted net income of $1.55 billion, or 55 cents a share, up from $1.23 billion, or 42 cents, a year earlier. Revenue in the period ended Jan. 31 increased 11 pc to $25.1 billion.

Excluding one-time items, HP reported earnings of 65 cents a share, exceeding analysts' expectations of 62 cents. But investors were disappointed by a drop in the overall profit margin, which shrank to 7.3 pc from 7.7 pc in the previous quarter. HP shares gained 36 cents to $43.13, near their six-year high of $43.53 reached Jan. 12. But the stock then lost 1 pc in after-hours trading.
In the personal computer market, Dell has been losing ground to HP in the U.S. For the last two quarters, HP has led Dell in global PC shipments. In the three months ended Dec. 31, HP had 17.4 pc of the worldwide market compared with Dell's 13.9 pc according to a report last month from Gartner Inc.

Sales of HP's personal notebooks were up 40 pc in the first quarter. The imaging and printing division, HP's most profitable business, saw its sales rise 7 pc.
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Bank of Japan hikes interest rate
Tokyo: The Bank of Japan has raised the unsecured overnight call loan rate target to 0.50 pc from 0.25 pc the first time since July 2006.

Taking into account the current assessment of economic activity and prices...it is appropriate to adjust the level of the policy interest rate at this juncture so that a desirable course of economic activity and prices was to be maintained a statement issued by the board said.

Japan's gross domestic product grew at an unexpectedly fast annualized pace of 4.8 pc in the October-December quarter, but other Japanese data showed that consumption and wage growth remained sluggish and consumer prices were barely rising.

The central bank also lifted the Lombard lending rate, which is used for stand-by lending facility by the BOJ, to 0.75 pc from 0.40 pc.

The central bank's board voted 8-1 to hike the rate.
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