FRANKFURT/PARIS/AMSTERDAM (dpa-AFX) - A surprisingly optimistic sales outlook from Applied Materials gave investors hope for an upturn in the chip industry on Friday. However, this was mainly sustained by industry suppliers, with some chip manufacturers losing some of their initial gains.

Applied Materials, a manufacturer of equipment for the semiconductor industry, forecast earnings above the average analyst estimate for the second quarter. This should signal continued high investment by chip manufacturers in their production capacities. In an initial assessment, analyst Stacy Rasgon from Bernstein Research spoke of quite strong business figures and a very good outlook. All areas had exceeded expectations.

In early US trading, Applied Materials shares soared by up to 10 percent, passing the 200-dollar mark for the first time in their history. Most recently, the share price rose by a further seven percent to just over 201 euros. Other sector stocks from the USA followed suit, such as the shares of direct competitor Lam Research, which rose by 2.1 percent.

Chip manufacturers, on the other hand, showed a more mixed performance: Nvidia recently gained half a percent. The company has long benefited from strong demand for processors for applications with a focus on artificial intelligence, as has its competitor AMD, whose share price turned negative on Friday.

Other areas, such as memory chips, suffered from significant inventory corrections by chip manufacturers and their customers, who reduced their full inventories, especially in 2023. Recently, there have also been increasing signs of weakening demand for chips for industrial applications.

Infineon's competitor STMicroelectronics, for example, announced a decline in sales for the first quarter. Infineon was also unable to escape the partly weak semiconductor market environment and lowered its forecasts for the current financial year at the beginning of February.

Infineon shares have so far only partially made up for the subsequent price setback. In the first half of the day on Friday, it looked as if European sector stocks were also making gains. However, some of these were lost again due to the renewed rise in interest rate nervousness: Infineon, for example, had recently turned negative by 1.2 percent./mis/la/stk/tih/he