By Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Technology shares were mostly in positive territory Friday, propelled by rising shares of Seagate Technology, SanDisk Corp and Altera Corp. The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) rose more than 1.5% to 2,641. The benchmark trimmed its losses for the week and was poised to end the week down 1%. Leading the rally were shares of Seagate (STX) which jumped more than 20% as analysts saw the hard disk drive maker benefitting from the disruption in the operations of rival Western Digital (WDC) as a result of the flooding in Thailand. "With competitor Western Digital's capacity severely impaired by the Thai floods and looking unlikely to recover until at least the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2012 ... we believe Seagate has the opportunity to decisively gain significant market share and materially improve gross margins in upcoming quarters," ThinkEquity analyst Rajesh Ghai said in a note. Shares of SanDisk (SNDK) were up more than 7% after the chip maker posted better-than-expected results. "SanDisk continues to execute," Lazard Capital analyst Daniel Amir said in a note. "Results yesterday confirmed our positive thesis on SanDisk." Also powering the rally were shares of Altera(ALTR) , up more than 10% at last check. The chip company issued a softer-than-anticipated guidance, but Citigroup analyst Glen Yeung speculated that the company was being conservative as he advised clients to "buy the current pullback." "Based on the plethora of opinions on earnings calls and off, we feel confident in asserting that the consensus opinion amongst companies is that somewhere in the November-February timeframe a bottom will be reached," Yeung wrote. The view of a bottom for chips appeared to lift the rest of the semiconductor sector as the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) rose 3%. Other major chip names saw their shares post gains, including Intel Corp.(INTC) , Advanced Micro Devices(AMD) , Texas Instruments (TXN) and Nvidia Corp.(NVDA) Meanwhile, shares of Synaptics Inc (SYNA) , which develops touch screen and touch pad systems, jumped more than 18%. Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu upgraded the stock's rating to buy from neutral saying "there is value in its portfolio of 260 patent assets in the touchscreen space that has become important in the patent wars." Also posting gains were shares of Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) which were up a fraction a day after reporting higher earnings on strong corporate sales. "While some might regard Microsoft 's results as only being in line with expectations, we see the results as a good showing in what we continue to view as a tenuous macro backdrop," J.P. Morgan analyst John DiFucci said in a note. On the downside, shares of Freescale Semiconductor (FSL) slipped 1.7% after the company reported a loss. BMO Capital downgraded the stock to market perform from outperform, saying "We believe Freescale will continue to have a difficult time delivering on its earnings per share growth story." Also in the red were shares of Compuware Corp. (CPWR) which were down more than 4%.
