Tuesday's Winners & Losers: SAP

Tech stocks were flying Tuesday, as the major market indices gained from a drop in oil prices, positive home-sales and data suggesting an increase in consumer confidence.

Shares of SAP(SAP Quote) were up $4.72, or 8.8%, to $58.44 after it beat Wall Street's second-quarter expectations. The German business software maker reported revenue growth of 20% to $4.55 billion, excluding an $81 million writedown from the acquisition of Business Objects, a developer of business intelligence software. Analysts were expecting revenue of $4.49 billion. Excluding special items, EPS was 65.7 cents vs. consensus estimates of 63 cents.

Oracle(ORCL Quote) also rose 69 cents, or 3.3%, to $21.41 following rival SAP's comments that U.S. business sentiment was better-than-expected in the quarter.

Alcatel-Lucent(ALU Quote) was up 36 cents, or 6.2%, to $6.12 after the company said Chairman Serge Tchuruk and Chief Executive Patricia Russo will step down. The duo was seen as the architects of the $11.4 billion merger between Alcatel and Lucent Technologies in 2006.

IT security company Websense(WBSN Quote) gained $1.27, or 6.8%, to $19.98 after it reported strong second-quarter results and raised its outlook for the year. The company posted a loss of $8.2 million compared to net income of $2.1 million, a year ago, mainly due to charges related to its acquisition of SurfControl last year. Excluding charges, it posted net income 37 cents a share, vs. 22 cents a share, the year-before. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting earnings of 31 cents a share.

Second-quarter revenue rose to $73 million, and was higher than consensus estimates of $83.5 million. The company expects 2008 revenue, excluding charges, to be in the range of $340 million to $345 million, and earnings, excluding charges, in the range of $1.30 to $1.35 a share. Analysts are expecting revenue of $335.17 million and EPS of $1.24 a share.