Tens of billions wiped off Apple and Microsoft market caps

Shares tumble at both US giants following a mixed set of results

The latest quarterly results from Apple and Microsoft disappointed Wall Street, with tanking shares at both companies wiping billions off their market cap figures.

Apple's shares dropped roughly seven per cent to $121.80 (£77.93) per share yesterday after it announced its Q3 results, while Microsoft's Q4 earnings announcement prompted its shares to fall by around four per cent to $45.38 per share.

This slump meant collectively the two companies lost tens of billions of dollars in market capitalisation, with Apple's alone shrinking by $60bn to $700.2bn.

But despite this drop in share price, Apple saw all-time record revenue from services and a surge in iPhone sales.

For the three months to 27 June, Apple's Q3 net profit grew 38.9 per cent year on year to $10.7bn, on sales of $49.6bn, which were up 32.6 per cent over the same period.

Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, said: "We had an amazing quarter, with iPhone revenue up 59 per cent over last year, strong sales of Mac, all-time record revenue from services - driven by the App Store - and a great start for Apple Watch."

Industry analyst Megabuyte said there was much to cheer in the US behemoth's results.

"In our view, there are plenty of reasons to remain bullish on Apple, not least that the company is only getting going in China, average iPhone selling prices are edging up as new and upgrading customers buy the iPhone 6 and, despite the scaremongering, the Apple Watch is clearly selling in significant volumes," the analyst said.

Microsoft meanwhile did not see the surge in revenues and profits of its fellow US giant.

The firm reported a multibillion-dollar quarterly loss after it was dented by a $7.5bn charge relating to its Nokia buy.

For the three months to 30 June, Microsoft recorded a net loss of $3.2bn on GAAP revenues of $22.2bn, which were down 5.4 per cent, from the same quarter in 2014.

Satya Nadella, Microsoft chief executive, said: "Our approach to investing in areas where we have differentiation and opportunity is paying off with Surface, Xbox, Bing, Office 365, Azure and Dynamics CRM Online all growing by at least double digits. And the upcoming release of Windows 10 will create new opportunities for Microsoft and our ecosystem."

Microsoft also claimed the strengthening of the US dollar compared with foreign currencies impinged its growth in this quarter.

Despite the losses, Megabuyte was largely positive on Microsoft.

"The Nokia debacle tainted another period of positive strategy execution from Microsoft, with the adjusted performance in line with market expectations and underpinned by strong momentum for its cloud solutions.

"Looking ahead, it will be interesting to see what part, if any, phone devices will play in Microsoft's mobile-first strategy, particularly given the growing success of its Surface tablet following what was also a slow start, as well as the upcoming release of Windows 10," the analyst said.