SIA Reports 58% Surge in Global Semi Sales During March (SMH)

Today the Semiconductor Industry Association reported global semi sales of $23.1 billion for the month of March, up 4.6% from February and up a whopping 58.3% from the same month last year.

The SIA's George Scalise said, "Global sales of semiconductors set a new high for the month of March and were second only to the record sales reported in November 2007. Healthy demand from major end markets coupled with restocking to normal inventory levels contributed to strong first-quarter growth. While we expect that 2010 sales will continue to be strong, the year-on-year growth rate will moderate going forward, reflecting the industry recovery that began in the second half of 2009."

Taking a look at each region, semi sales rose 48.2% in the Americas, 42% in Europe, 43% in Japan and a solid 72% in Asia Pacific.

Even with a 1.3% and 1.5% rise in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, respectively, today, Semi stocks are outperforming the broader markets. The Semiconductor HOLDRs ETF (NYSE: SMH) has risen more than 2.3%.

Around the sector:

• Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) up 2.2% to $23.33
  
• Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) up 2% to $26.52
  
• Applied Materials (Nasdaq: AMAT) up 2% to $14.05
  
• Broadcom (Nasdaq: BRCD) up 2% to $35.20
  
• Marvell (Nasdaq: MRVL) up 1.2% to $20.91
  
• Micron (NYSE: MU) up 5.4% to $9.85
  
• Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX) up 2.3% to $26.39

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