Datum Stock Up 13.8%

IRVINE —  Datum Inc. shares jumped 13.8% Thursday, a change that its president and an analyst attributed to additional demand for telecommunications equipment by its largest customer, Lucent Technologies Inc.

Lucent requires additional equipment to satisfy demand from a contract it has picked up from Motorola Inc., and Lucent is Datum’s biggest customer, said Ian Gilson of Van Kasper & Co.

Motorola lost the contract after defects were discovered in its cellular-network equipment and software. The news of increased deliveries to Lucent “bears positively for the second quarter,” Datum President and Chief Executive Louis Horwitz said. But it doesn’t represent a new supplier contract with Lucent, as the deal with Datum is covered as a “blanket provision,” Horwitz said.

Irvine-based Datum recently announced that its first-quarter results would probably indicate a loss of about 30 cents a share. The company is scheduled to report final results April 23.

Datum shares rose $1.75 to $14.38 in Nasdaq trading.