Lenovois confident it can improve its profit margins further despite the gloom blanketing the global personal computer industry, as it reported strong growth in its interim profits, which beat market expectations.

The Chinese PC maker yesterday said second-quarter sales were up 11 per cent from a year ago, a sharp slowdown compared with a 35 per cent growth in the first quarter but which came against the backdrop of a decline in global PC sales, analysts said.

Lenovo said it increased its share of the global PC market by 0.6 percentage points in the three months to September, to 15.6 per cent, meaning it still trailed market-leader Hewlett-Packardat that point. But, market research in October suggested Lenovo may have overtaken HP in the third quarter as the biggest PC maker by shipments.