The internet company Yahoo has provided a welcome boost for the tech market, after reporting its first quarterly profit for more than a year.

The company made a net profit of $21.4m during the second quarter, compared with a loss of $48.5m in the same period last year.

Yahoo has maintained an intense focus on achieving its strategic goals

Terry Semel Yahoo

The net profit works out as 3 cents per share, which was one penny more than analysts were expecting.

"Yahoo has maintained an intense focus on achieving its strategic goals and executing against its business plan," said Terry Semel, chairman and chief executive.

The second-quarter results covered the three months to 30 June.

Strong sales

The company said its revenues rose by 24% to $225.8m, from $182.2m a year earlier.

"As we execute against our business plan, we expect to continue to deliver strong results and profitable growth through the remainder of the year," added Mr Semel.

For the whole of 2002, the company is forecasting revenues of $900m to $940m.

Until this latest profit, the company has reported six quarters of losses.

Advertising slump

The company has suffered from the ongoing decline in internet advertising.

It has spent most of the past two years attempting to diversify its revenue streams by signing up more corporate advertisers to offset the loss of the dot.com advertisers.

The profit reported on Wednesday reflected the results of that strategy, the company said.

Yahoo's stock, which had closed down 51 cents at $12.19 before the results were announced, was quoted at about $12.39 in after-hours trading.