Berkshire picks up $1bn-worth in Apple shares

The conglomerate founded by investing legend Warren Buffet picked up a significant slice of shares in technology giant Apple during the first quarter of 2016, just as many investors were doing exactly the opposite following several years of strong gains for the tech sector, company filings revealed.

Berkshire Hathaway, Buffet’s firm, picked up 9.8m shares in Apple, worth nearly $1bn, during that three month period, an amount equivalent to 0.2% of the Cupertino,California-based outfit's equity, the outfit's latest 13-F filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission revealed.

Significantly, the decision to carry out this latest investment may have been taken by one of Buffet’s deputies, Todd Combs or Ted Weschler, Bloomberg reported.

News of the increased stake came close on the heels of reports over the weekend that Berkshire Hathaway had offered to finance a bid by Dan Gilbert, the founder of Quicken Loans, for internet outfit Yahoo.

In the same SEC filing, Berkshire disclosed that it had sold 99% of its stake in Procter&Gamble while cutting that in Wal Mart.

On the other hand, it boosted its stakes in the likes of Liberty Media, Deere&co. and IBM.

To take note of, stock in Apple opened right atop their 200-week moving average on Monday.

Shares in Apple were leading gainers on the Dow Jones Industrials, rising by 3.15% to 93.37 15:42 BST.