Nokia profits fall by 22%

Nokia says its third-quarter profits have fallen by 22%.

Its pre-tax profits were £667m, down from £853m last time.

Third-quarter sales fell by 7% to £4.4bn.

Sales at Nokia Networks were down 14%, while sales at Nokia Mobile Phones fell by 3%.

But the company says it sees market conditions stabilising, and its share price has jumped almost 4% amid investor relief that profits had not fallen further.

Finland's biggest company now sees full-year handset sales across the industry at 390 million units, in line with Motorola's forecast last week of between 380 million and 400 million.

Nokia says it plans to put renewed emphasis on handset market share, in line with its target of a 40% market share.

It says it expects revenue growth to recover to a rate of between 25% and 35% some time in 2002.

The company, which sells about a third of the world's mobile phones, is suffering as consumers and phone companies rein in spending to adjust to an economic slowdown