Panasonic shares soar 16% after return to profit

Pedestrians walk past an advert of Japanese electronics giant Panasonic in Tokyo. (AFP/Yoshikazu Tsuno)

TOKYO: Panasonic shares rocketed 16 per cent Wednesday morning after the struggling Japanese electronics giant said it swung into the black for the April-December period with a US$2.4 billion profit.

The Tokyo-listed shares soared to 1,230 yen, following the announcement after markets closed Tuesday, when the company's shares had dived almost 7.0 per cent in a broader market sell-off.

Panasonic -- recovering from combined losses topping US$15 billion in the past two fiscal years -- said its nine-month net earnings came in at 243.0 billion yen (US$2.4 billion), reversing a net loss of 623.8 billion yen over the same period a year ago, as sales rose 4.4 per cent.

The vast company, which makes everything from appliances and televisions to GPS navigation products and batteries, credited its healthier balance sheet to cost cutting, buoyant sales in its auto division, and the yen's fall over the past year.

The currency's decline -- losing about a quarter of its value against the dollar -- has helped Japanese exporters by making them more competitive overseas and inflating repatriated profits.

Panasonic's results come as the country's once world-beating electronics giants, including Sony and Sharp, undergo painful restructurings aimed at stemming years of record losses.

The struggling sector has faced serious challenges in recent years, with television sales plunging while foreign rivals such as Apple and Samsung overtook them in the lucrative smartphone market.

Panasonic has said it will abandon the consumer smartphone market and stop production of plasma television screens, in line with a broader industry shift away from plasma units. Hitachi and Pioneer have also exited the market in recent years.

Also Tuesday, Sharp booked a 17.7 billion yen net profit in the April-December period, reversing a whopping net loss of 424.3 billion yen a year earlier.

Sales jumped 21 per cent on brisk demand for panels, including its popular "IGZO" displays for mobile phones, said the maker of Aquos-brand electronics.

Sharp shares slipped 0.94 per cent to 314 yen while Sony, which reports its financial results Thursday, was up 5.35 per cent to 1,610 yen in Tokyo.