Nokia yesterday said it expected flat earnings for the first quarter of 2001, confirming fears that the world's most successful mobile phone maker was succumbing to a sector slowdown.

Nokia - once seen as largely immune to troubles affecting rivals Motorola of the United States and Sweden's Ericsson - forecast first-quarter earnings per share (e.p.s.) would be unchanged on the same quarter of last year at 19 cents. Nokia also cut its forecast for 2001 industry-wide handset sales. Last year it estimated more than 405 million phones were sold. Chief executive Mr Jorma Ollila acknowledged he was unable to predict where the industry was going.

The comments did little to calm market concerns about the future of the handset industry, in which Nokia is the largest player with over 30 per cent of the market share.

Nokia's pre-tax profit for the fourth quarter of last year rose 39 per cent year-on-year to €1.77 billion, slightly above the median forecast in a Reuters poll of €1.70 billion.

Fourth-quarter net sales showed a better-than-expected jump of 46 per cent to €9.28 billion. Nokia also forecast weaker-than-expected first-quarter sales growth of around 25-30 per cent, with only 25 per cent growth for its handset units, which makes up 70 per cent of total sales.

Analysts said Nokia was in effect issuing a first-quarter profit warning.