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FRANKFURT/PARIS/ZURICH (dpa-AFX) - Encouraging industry news from the USA and Asia boosted Europe's semiconductor stocks in the middle of the week. The technology sector as a whole continued its recovery in the wake of the Nasdaq. The technology-heavy US stock exchange Nasdaq is likely to gain further this Wednesday.

Texas Instruments presented its quarterly figures on Tuesday after the US stock market closed. Despite a significant drop in sales and a slump in profits, the US chip manufacturer exceeded analysts' expectations, which led to a 7.5 percent rise in the share price on Wednesday. In addition, South Korean competitor Hynix Semiconductor announced in the middle of the week that it would be investing 5.3 trillion won (equivalent to just under 20.7 billion US dollars) in a new production facility. Chip industry supplier ASM International also impressed investors with a high order intake in the past quarter

The positive sentiment in the broader technology sector was also helped by Tesla's well-received quarterly report. Despite the first decline in sales in years, the US electric car manufacturer impressed with a surprisingly high gross margin and the announcement of new, affordable models. The share price jumped 12 percent before the announcement.

The technology share index now leads the broad market Stoxx Europe 600 with a plus of 2.3 percent. It has now almost made up for the price dip of the past week and a half. Since the beginning of the year, it has risen by ten percent, which puts it at the top of the European sector table.

At the top of the Dax, the shares of chip manufacturer Infineon rose by 6.3 percent, ending a two-week slide. However, similar to most European sector stocks, losses have still been recorded since the beginning of the year.

SAP was also among the leaders of the leading German index on Wednesday with a further 0.8 percent recovery. The software company's shares had already benefited on Tuesday from its own positively received quarterly figures.

In the MDax, the index of medium-sized stock market companies, chip industry supplier Aixtron was among the favorites with a gain of 2.9 percent. Elmos was particularly popular in the small-cap index SDax: the share price rose by 6.5 percent.

In the leading eurozone index EuroStoxx 50 - apart from favorite Infineon - ASML took one of the top places with a plus of 2.4 percent. STMicro in Paris and AMS-Osram in Zurich both rose by 6.3 percent./gl/ck/mis