Shares in ARM Holdings were down on the FTSE 100 in afternoon trading after the group reported a rise in pre-tax profit in the first quarter ended 31 March.

Revenue in dollars in the period increased 29 per cent to $185.5 million, while in sterling revenue rose 26 per cent to £116 million.

Pre-tax profit in the period jumped 35 per cent to £50.8 per cent.

During the period the company shipped 1.15 billion ARM-processor based chips for mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. In addition 0.7 billion ARM-processor based chips were shipped into applications such as digital TV's, disk drives and microcontrollers.

Looking ahead ARM said that, despite uncertainty about the impact of the Japanese earthquake on the economy and the semiconductor industry supply chain and end-product markets, it expected to see dollar revenues for the full year 2011 "at least in line with current market expectations".

Warren East, Chief Executive Officer of ARM Holdings, said, "Influential market leaders are licensing ARM technology to gain access to a growing ecosystem of operating systems, software applications, tools and service providers. Many of these companies have been ARM licensees for many years, and are now deploying ARM technology across a multitude of applications; in mobile, consumer electronics and embedded devices.

"This licensing drives ARM's long-term royalty opportunity. Shipments of ARM-processor based chips increased 33% on the same period last year driven by growth in smartphones, tablets, digital TVs and microcontrollers. ARM's revenue growth enables us to continue to invest in innovative technology development at the same time as delivering strong increases in profits and cash flow."

By 16:40 shares in ARM Holdings were down 1.76 per cent on the FTSE 100 to 614.50 pence per share.

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