The best performer on the S&P/ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) on Thursday has been the Xero Limited (ASX: XRO) share price.
At the time of writing the business and accounting software provider's shares have rebounded from a 4% decline on Wednesday and are up 8% to $43.23.
Why is the Xero share price storming higher?
With no news out of the company or broker notes that I'm aware of, today's gain appears to be the result of improving investor sentiment in the information technology sector.
Xero and a number of its tech industry peers such as Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) and WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC) have stormed higher today after the technology-focused Nasdaq index jumped 2.2% higher overnight.
This gain was driven by an impressive 7% gain by the Apple share price and supported by solid gains across all FAANG stocks.
In addition to this, investors are likely to have been pleased to see Facebook report a better than expected quarterly result after the market close.
What did Facebook report?
According to CNBC, Facebook delivered quarterly revenue of US$16.91 billion, compared to the consensus estimate of US$16.39 billion.
This was driven by a 21% quarter-on-quarter increase in average revenue per user (ARPU), which smashed expectations at US$7.37.
On the bottom line the social media giant posted net income of US$6.88 billion, which was a record profit and an increase of 61% from the prior corresponding period.
The market has responded very positively to the news, with Facebook's shares currently up 12% in after hours trade.
Should you buy Xero shares?
I think Xero is one of the most promising tech companies on the Australian share market and has a significant runway for growth thanks to its expansion into the UK and North America.
While I think that its shares are approaching fair value now after this stellar gain, I do believe they are still worth considering as a long-term buy and hold investment.
