At the end of a week during which Apple said it sold a single-day record number of iPhones, its shares hit an all-time high on Wall Street on June 18.
Apple shares reached $275 during the day's trading before closing at $274.07, a gain of 0.81% for the day.
The Cupertino, California-based company said on June 15 that it had received 600,000 pre-orders for the new iPhone, the most ever in a single day. The heavy demand forced Apple and its telecom partner AT&T to suspend the early ordering process for the iPhone 4, which goes on sale in Britain, France, Germany, Japan and the United States on June 24.
Last month, Apple dethroned software giant Microsoft as the largest U.S. technology company in terms of market value. The only U.S. company with a larger market capitalization than Apple is ExxonMobil.
Apple stock has risen steadily over the past few years as chief executive Steve Jobs, who returned to Apple in 1997, piloted the release of a string of hit products starting with the iPod in 2001, followed by the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad this year.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010
