Chip-Equipment Makers Fall After Tokyo Electron Loss Forecast
By Minoru Matsutani
02/03 20:57
quote.bloomberg.com
Tokyo, Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The shares of Japanese chip- equipment makers fell after Tokyo Electron Ltd. almost tripled its full-year loss forecast.
The shares of Tokyo Electron, the second-biggest maker of chipmaking equipment, fell as much as 5.3 percent to 6,300 yen. The shares of the company's peers also declined. Advantest Corp., the biggest maker of memory-chip testers, fell as much as 5.5 percent. Nikon Corp., the second-biggest maker of machines that etch circuitry onto silicon wafers, fell as much as 3.1 percent.
Tokyo Electron widened its loss estimate to 25 billion yen ($188 million) after orders tumbled by four-fifths in the fiscal third quarter and only started to rebound this month. Chip equipment sales account for 86 percent of revenue at Tokyo Electron, leaving the Tokyo-based company dependent on chipmakers being optimistic the industry will grow.
With Tokyo Electron's earnings announcement, ``sentiment to give up on an early recovery in the technology industry is growing,'' said Hideo Ueki, who helps manage $10 billion in Japanese equities at UBS Asset Management (Japan) Ltd., including Tokyo Electron shares.
Orders stopped declining in the October-December quarter and will almost double in the current three-month period, the company said. |
