HEXUS.sharewatch: ARM shares buffeted by rumour

It can't be easy being an ARM investor these days. The company's ubiquity in mobile devices is surely priced into its stock by now, which is trading at a P/E of over 90. But the big variable is to what extent ARM architecture will appear in PCs.

At the start of the week we had the speculation that Apple may consider using Intel as a foundry in order to manufacture its mobile chips. This was viewed as a potential negative for ARM and its shares fell accordingly. The feeling of Intel ascendancy was cemented by the unveiling of its 22nm process technology, which is expected to give Intel's mobile ambitions a much-needed boost.

 But last week also saw the announcement by IDC that it reckons 13 percent of PCs will run on ARM chips by 2015, and then we had the juicy rumour that Apple is thinking of moving its PCs to ARM chips. These bits of news fuelled a partial ARM recovery, but it still ended up down on the week.

The other big loser was also in mobile. Nokia's shares have been reasonably resilient recently, but the latest slew of data revealing Apple isn't far from toppling it as the world's leading smartphone-maker seems to have taken its toll. Nokia's shares also suffered a big fall after it announced its FY 2010 dividend.