Nokia forecast calms investors after loss

The world's top cell phone maker Nokia calmed jittery investors yesterday by reaffirming its forecast for the handset market and saying visibility was improving, sending its shares higher.

January-March sales fell 27 percent as the economic downturn sapped demand for new phones, with the firm reporting a historic 12-million-euro loss before taxes, its first-ever quarterly pretax loss.

The cell phone market is facing its toughest year ever in 2009, with Nokia repeating its forecast for market volumes to fall around 10 percent.