ASML goes back into black

AMSTERDAM: ASML Holding NV, Europe's largest maker of semiconductor equipment, reported a fourth-quarter profit as chipmakers resumed buying its machines after an industry slump.

Net income was 50.5 million euros ($71.7 million), or 12 cents a share, compared with a net loss of 88 million euros, or 2 cents, a year earlier, Veldhoven, Netherlands-based ASML said. That beat the 44.5 million-euro average of 15 analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

ASML, the maker of machines that fabricate chips for Apple Inc's iPods and Nokia Oyj's mobile phones, predicted sales will rise to around 700 million euros in the first quarter and 950 million euros in the second as customers resume spending after a slump last year.