The company had second quarter revenues of $1.32bn (€0.97bn), up 7 per cent on the same period last year, with growth in the bio-analytical division out-pacing their major competitors.

Net income for the quarter was also up 7 per cent, reaching $123m, compared with $115m last year.

"Agilent had another solid performance in this year's second quarter," said Bill Sullivan, Agilent's CEO.

"As in the first quarter, we saw notable strength across our bio-analytical measurement portfolio and significant weakness in wireless handset test."

The bio-analytical division reported sales of $457m for the quarter, up 14 per cent on last year's second quarter results of $401m.

"In our bio-analytical segment we had another strong quarter, with orders up double digits for the fourth consecutive quarter and revenues up 15 percent above last year," said Adrian Dillon, Agilent's chief financial officer.

Revenues for the quarter were $428m, compared with $372m and gross margins growing from 50 per cent to 53 per cent.

"We're particularly pleased by the initial reception to our second quarter GC (gas chromatography) and GC/MS platform introductions," commented Sullivan, who continued to note that revenue growth for the company's Bio-Analytical division outpaced their major competitors.

Revenues for the life sciences sector were up 20 per cent to $194m for the quarter with strong sales of the company's LC/MS (liquid chromatography / mass spectrometry) and CGH (comparative genomics hybridisation) microarray platforms driving the growth.

Growth in the Chemical Analysis sector was not so strong with revenues increasing by 11 per cent to $234m.

"In bio-analytical measurement, our strategic intent is to continue to provide industry-focused workflow solutions to our key segments. We will continue to focus our R&D, customer collaboration and M&A efforts on refreshing and expanding our portfolio, improving customer workflow requirements, and providing full application solutions to our customers' needs," said Dillon.