San Francisco  - Shares in technology giant Hewlett-Packard Co rallied by as much as 15 per cent early Tuesday after the company reported that preliminary earnings would beat Wall Street's expectations.

HP said it expects to post a profit of 84 cents a share, on revenue of 33.6 billion dollars for its recently completed fourth- quarter, beating last year's figures of 81 cents a share on revenue of 28.3 billion dollars. Excluding one-time charges and items, HP said it earned 1.03 dollars a share, beating the forecasted earnings of 1 dollar a share.

The results represented a rare positive development for the embattled tech sector and helped lift HP shares by 4.16 dollars to 33.50 dollars in early trading.

Chief executive Mark Hurd said in a statement that the company is dealing with "a challenging marketplace," but benefiting from its international presence, broad customer base and ongoing cost-cutting efforts.

The Silicon Valley company also issued positive outlooks for its 2009 first quarter and entire fiscal year. For its first fiscal quarter, HP expects to post a profit of 80 to 82 cents a share on revenue of 32 billion dollars to 32.5 billion dollars, with earnings of 93 cents to 95 cents a share.

For the year, HP expects to earn 3.38 dollars to 3.53 dollars a share on revenue of between 127.5 billion dollars and 130 billion dollars, the company said, a jump of between 7.7 per cent and 8.9 per cent over 2008. (dpa)