Nokia posts surprise second-quarter profit rise ahead of CEO change

Finnish telecom network equipment maker Nokia reported an unexpected rise in its second-quarter underlying profit on Friday, amid the Covid-19 pandemic as its new chief executive Pekka Lundmark takes over on Saturday.

Lagging behind its rivals China's Huawei and Sweden's Ericsson in 5G network sales, Nokia said its April-June underlying earnings rose to 0.06 euros per share from a profit of 0.05 euros a year ago, beating the 0.03 euros consensus in a Refinitiv poll.

Nokia, which had warned of a weak second quarter due to the virus, upgraded its forecast for 2020 underlying earnings per share to between 0.2 and 0.3 euros from 0.18 to 0.28 euros earlier.