Intel posted a 6 per cent rise in earnings and a 3 per cent revenue gain on Thursday, as it forecast stabilisation in the global PC market which has been decimated by the rise of smartphones and tablets.

The world’s largest maker of computer semiconductors said that it earned $2.6 billion in the fourth quarter, up from $2.5 billion a year earlier. Revenue rose 3 per cent to $13.8 billion.

While the results beat the company’s guidance, they fell short of Wall Street estimates and sent shares down 3 per cent in after-hours trading as investors were turned off by its flat revenue forecast for 2014.

Intel, whose chips power the majority of PCs but only a small proportion of smartphones and tablets, has suffered financially as demand for PCs has shrunk. In the last year alone, PC sales declined by 10 per cent according to research firms Gartner and International Data Corporation.

Intel said that its fourth-quarter PC chip business held steady compared to the year earlier quarter with $8.6 billion in revenue.

“While the PC market was down on the year, we saw the market stabilize in the back half of the year with fourth-quarter PC units up from a year ago,” said Intel chief financial officer Stacy Smith in conference call. She added that when chips for tablet computers were included, unit growth in the fourth quarter was up almost 10 per cent from a year ago.

“We had a solid fourth quarter with signs of stabilisation in the PC segment and financial growth from a year ago,” said Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich. “We’ve built a strong foundation for our business by bringing innovation to the market more quickly across a wide range of computing platforms.”

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