Intel shares rally after news of NSA scandal

Microsoft stock is rising after the US government announced that a former NSA contractor has been charged with leaking information about the spy agency’s surveillance program.

The tech giant, which is on a five-year buy-back program that was launched in July to try to bring down its debt, rose 3.5 per cent to $68.89 on Friday.

Intel shares are on track to rise this year, driven by a new wave of consumer demand from Apple and Amazon.

Intel has been a big beneficiary of the wave of new technology that has sprung up in the last five years.

The company is a pioneer in mobile computing and has grown to become a leader in cloud computing, which enables companies to store data locally and share it across the network.