Bangalore: Apple, who ruled the roost in stock market for over a decade, has reported a loss for the first time. The Cupertino giant’s fiscal second quarter, which ended on March 30, has recorded a drop of 18 percent in sales to $9.55 billion, or $10.09 a share, from $11.62 billion, or $12.30 a share, during the same period a year earlier. Along Apple also lost its crown of world’s most valuable company to Exxon Mobil, an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas.

One thing that spooked investors is Apple’s proclamation to expect little to no sales growth in this quarter, which fuelled company’s share slide from a peak of more than $700 last year. In wake of such a hostile environment, Apple has found a big investor that still has faith in its future—Apple itself. On Tuesday, the iPhone maker announced that it has planned double its programme to return cash to shareholders through stock buybacks and a higher dividend, spending $100 billion on the effort through the end of 2015. The decision will make Apple to shell out $60 billion from the $10 billion it committed previously, which comes to a dividend of $3.05 a common share, which is a largest such plan in history, reports The Economic Times.

Read Also: 'Google Now' Is Headed To Google's Home Page and Yahoo To Shut Down Its Email Service In World's Most Populous Country