A jump in international sales helped Dell to withstand weakness in its core business of selling to US commercial customers during its most recent quarter, the maker of PCs, servers and other hardware reported on Thursday.

The unexpected strength topped Wall Street’s expectations and fed hopes that Dell’s long-awaited turnround was finally starting to show some results. Its shares rose more than 9 per cent in after-market trading, though they continued to stand 15 per cent below their level of six months ago, before the latest bout of investor impatience at the stalled revival of what had once been revered as the hardware industry’s most efficient operator.