HEXUS.sharewatch: Google and Nokia lead tech rally

Considering the turmoil and uncertainty still clouding the broader macroeconomic picture - especially regarding sovereign debt - it comes as a pleasant surprise to see all our tech stocks finish last week higher than they started it.

Google was one of the biggest gainers, and two pieces of news seem to have played a large part in this investor support. Firstly there were the reports that US video-on-demand service Hulu is being put up for sale, and that Google is interested. Such an acquisition would do a lot to strengthen Google's online video service, which already has a solid foundation in YouTube.

And then there was the Nortel patent auction. Our first impression when we heard that Google had been out-bid for these mobile-related patents by a consortium of rival companies was that it was bad new s for Android, but investors seem to think differently. In Fact Google is now being lauded by some as the victor of the auction process by driving the price up so high.

Apparently it even cheekily bid using numbers of geeky significance - such as Pi, and the distance between the earth and the sun - possibly to goad its competitors into bidding higher than they had originally intended. If that was the plan it was a very daring one and it seems to have worked.

Nokia shares also had a rare good week. While it may be that the deflated value of Nokia equity is now so low that investors consider it good value, last week also saw Nokia dispose of another asset - its white-label mobile messaging business. Maybe this was interpreted as a further step in the right direction for the Finnish mobile phone giant.