Nasdaq Hits Record As Strong Earnings Impress

The Nasdaq Composite Index has reached a record high, 15 years on from the dot-com crash - and is on course to track higher still thanks to strong results from Google and Amazon.

The tech-heavy market closed Thursday's trading session at 5,056 points, a level it has not seen since 10 March 2000.

The return to its previous heights has been driven by a significant shift in the makeup of the market, from software and chip-makers back then to companies that are now dominant world forces.

Apple and its market value of $755bn (£499bn) is at the top of the pile.

It was in 45th position in value terms back in 2000.

Google, currently the second-largest firm on the Nasdaq, was just emerging and did not join the market until 2004 while Amazon ranked 41st.

Amazon is the fourth largest firm by market value today.

Quarterly results announced by both Google and Amazon were tipped by analysts to help lead further gains on the Nasdaq on Friday after shares in both firms were boosted by after-hours gains.

Amazon's share price rose 6% on a 15% first quarter revenue jump and a smaller-than-expected loss of $57m (£38m) as the online retail giant continued to spend big on new areas and services.

What impressed most was sales growth at Amazon Web Services (AWS) - a division the company had never reported on before.

The cloud computing services business, which is believed to have a dominant 30% share of the market, achieved revenue of $1.57bn.

That was up from just over $1bn (£660m) in the same quarter last year.

Strong advertising sales helped Google grow quarterly profits by 4% to $3.6bn (£2.4bn) - with its share price gaining 3% after-hours despite revenues missing estimates.

The company, which is facing a potentially costly search competition case in Europe, was hit by a stronger dollar depressing overseas revenue.

Analysts said shareholders also remain nervous that Google's penchant for spending heavily on far-flung projects such as driverless cars, medical research and internet-beaming balloons may take years to pay off, if ever.

It also emerged on Thursday that Google's billionaire executive chairman Eric Schmidt's total pay soared more than five-fold to nearly $109m (£72m) in 2014 - a year in which its stock fell 5%.

Most of the compensation consisted of stock.