SAN FRANCISCO — Intel Corp.'s first-quarter profit matched Wall Street's subdued expectations, a sign the company's core microprocessor business remained healthy amid fears of a broader slowdown in technology spending.

The stock jumped about 7 percent in after-hours trading yesterday after the technology bellwether forecast higher profit margins in the second quarter while its smaller rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., continues to stumble.

Intel said yesterday that its net profit for the three months ended March 29 was $1.44 billion, or 25 cents per share. That represents a 12 percent decline from the year-ago period, when Intel earned $1.64 billion or 28 cents per share. But it was in line with the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

Intel's sales of $9.67 billion — a 9 percent improvement over last year and a record for the first quarter — came in slightly higher than Wall Street's estimate of $9.63 billion.

Intel's chief financial officer, Stacy Smith, said the results reflect the company's ability to overcome slumping prices in some segments of the semiconductor market with a new process that lowers the manufacturing costs for each chip.

"What we're seeing is the strength of the core business is offsetting that weakness," he said.

Intel warned in March that a steeper-than-expected drop in prices for a type of memory chip called NAND flash — commonly used in digital cameras and MP3 players — hurt profits more than anticipated. Analysts lowered their estimates.

Memory chip prices have been under pressure because of oversupply and fierce competition, a trend that has cut deeply into the profits of companies such as Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chip maker.

It was a surprise that Intel, whose primary business is making microprocessors — a different type of chip that acts as the brain of personal computers and servers — was hurt so badly.

Intel is the world's No. 1 maker of microprocessors, with about 75 percent of the world market. AMD, dragging under the weight of acquisition costs and fierce competition, is No. 2.

Intel began making NAND flash chips in 2006 under a joint venture with Micron Technology Inc. to cash in on growing demand for the most popular type of memory for consumer electronics — a move that some analysts now say was ill-timed considering the price plunge for those chips.

Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini said the joint venture is rethinking how much factory space it wants to devote to making NAND flash and has delayed construction on its new factory in Singapore as a result.

He added that economic jitters didn't appear to have harmed Intel in its major markets during the latest quarter.

The company forecast second-quarter sales of between $9 billion and $9.6 billion, in line with analysts' expectations.