Before the Bell-Cisco, chip equipment makers rise
Thursday September 4, 7:54 am ET
NEW YORK, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Shares of Applied Materials Inc. (NasdaqNM:AMAT - News) rose before Thursday's opening bell, helped by a bullish call by investment bank UBS on several U.S. semiconductor equipment makers.
Shares of Applied Materials, the world's largest maker of microchip production tools, rose to $21.31 on Instinet in pre-market trade, up from their close of $20.96 on the Nasdaq.
In addition to Applied Materials, UBS also upgraded its rating on Novellus (NasdaqNM:NVLS - News), KLA-Tencor (NasdaqNM:KLAC - News), ATMI (NasdaqNM:ATMI - News), Photronics (NasdaqNM:PLAB - News), Varian Semiconductor (NasdaqNM:VSEA - News) and Lam Research (NasdaqNM:LRCX - News) to "buy," on expectations of increased order flows, dealers said.
On Instinet, Novellus shares ticked up to $38.77 from their close of $38.49. Those of KLA-Tencor rose to $57.53, up from their close of $56.53.
Cisco Systems (NasdaqNM:CSCO - News) also rose before the bell, after investment bank Goldman Sachs upgraded its rating on the company "outperform" from "in-line".
Shares of Cisco, the world's largest maker of equipment that directs Internet traffic, rose to $20.60 on Instinet, up from their close of $20.24. They were the most actively traded issue in pre-market trading on Instinet. |
