Nokia shares fall amid worry over phone demand

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. shares of Nokia (NOK.N: Quote, Profile, Research) (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research) fell as much as 6 percent on Tuesday as investors worried about weakening cell phone demand in the current quarter, concerns that also dragged down shares of its key chip supplier, Texas Instruments (TXN.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

Nokia shares were down $2.10 or 5.88 percent to $33.62 in late morning trade on New York Stock exchange.

JPMorgan analyst Ehud Gelblum said some investors were worried about weakening cell phone demand because of weak reports coming out of Asian wireless component makers such as Compeq (2313.TW: Quote, Profile, Research), a Taiwanese printed circuit board market.

"I think its more noise than anything," he said. "January was very strong for the industry. Things have cooled off a little bit but the handset market looks like it will follow (typical) seasonal trends."

Gelblum said that any weakness among component makers may relate to shifting market shares, or the relative popularity of one phone model above another, rather than weakness in overall wireless phone demand.

Investors also pushed down shares of Texas Instruments, Nokia is TI's biggest mobile phone chip customer. Texas Instruments' shares were down $1.05 or more than 3 percent at

$28.88.

(Editing by Tim Dobbyn)