Nokia Falls on Disappointing Sales Estimates

Nokia's (NOK Quote - Cramer on NOK - Stock Picks) been up for hours, busy messing up markets on two continents.

The Finnish mobile phonemaker, which in the beginning of December was bragging about extending its current growth forecast until 2003, this morning announced a very respectable increase of 64% in year-on-year growth in handset sales. But the market was looking for more.

Nokia's sales increase exceeded the pace of global mobile phone sales, which was estimated to have increased 45% from 1999. But, again, higher sales figures were anticipated. The company sold 128 million of the total 405 million or so mobile phones that were sold last year.

On electronic brokerage Instinet, where investors can get in their trades before official stock market hours, Nokia was recently dropping $6.81, or 15.8%, to $36.31. The stock also put pressure on the major European stock market indices, which were down at midsession. Nokia's 52-week high is $62.50.

In early December, rival Ericsson(ERICY Quote - Cramer on ERICY - Stock Picks) maintained its earnings outlook, while Motorola(MOT Quote - Cramer on MOT - Stock Picks), for the second time, lowered its earnings outlook. Motorola had said it would fall short of sales and earnings projections through this year because of cost issues in its cellular handset business and falling demand in its semiconductor business. Motorola reports earnings tomorrow.

Nokia's announcement was not part of its earnings report, which comes out at the end of the month.