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Intel report leads Asian drop
http://www.sina.com.cn 2004/07/15 12:52  Shanghai Daily

  Asian stocks slid yesterday, led by semiconductor-related shares including Tokyo Electron Ltd and Samsung Electronics Co, after Intel Corp said profit margins this year may be narrower than its own forecast.

  Morgan Stanley Capital International's Asia-Pacific Index, which tracks more than 900 stocks in the region, slid 1.3 percent to 89.65, with the Information Technology index accounting for a quarter of its decline, in Tokyo yesterday.

  "These companies won't be getting more orders than they already have," said Wee Ban Yew, who helps manage the equivalent of US$3.3 billion at OCBC Asset Management Ltd in Singapore. "Technology spending will be much slower in coming months."

  UFJ Holdings Inc, the only one among Japan's four largest lenders to post a loss last fiscal year, surged 11 percent after saying it will seek a merger with Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc. Shares of Mitsubishi Tokyo rose 7.4 percent.

  "A weaker bank tying up with a strong bank is surely great news," said Marc Desmidt, who helps manage about US$9.2 billion as head of investment at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers Co in Tokyo. "Consolidation in the industry would mean more cost cutting, revenue growth and these sorts of things will create much more upside to their earnings."

  Stock benchmarks fell in every market except China's mainland and Sri Lanka. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average shed 2.2 percent to 11,356.65, the largest decline in two months. Indonesia's key stock index slumped after explosions rocked Bandung city in the West Java province. There were no injuries.

  Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, lost 4.8 percent in extended US trading. The company said gross margin, or the percentage of revenue left after subtracting the cost of goods sold, for this year will be about 60 percent, compared with a previous forecast of about 62 percent, because it's cutting prices to reduce inventories.

  "This is a signal that demand is not so good," said Maggie Chien, who helps manage the equivalent of US$30 million at Capital Investment Management Co in Taipei. "This will prompt Asian suppliers to cut prices to compete, further squeezing margins."

  Tokyo Electron, the world's second-largest maker of chip-production equipment, fell 4.5 percent to 5,370 yen (US$49.23). The company, which gets more than half of its revenue from overseas, is a supplier to Intel.

  Advantest Corp, the world's biggest maker of equipment used to test computer memory chips, shed 4.2 percent to 6,440 yen.

  Samsung Electronics, the world's largest maker of computer-memory chips, slid 3.6 percent to 418,000 won (US$362.55). The South Korean firm is expected to report a record 3.2 trillion won profit in the second quarter, according to the mean estimate of 24 analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

  "The key point now is not earnings in the second quarter and third quarter, but the outlook for later this year and next year," said Kim Young Joon, an analyst at Kyobo Securities Co in Seoul. "Intel's outlook suggests demand in the industry may grow slower than we expected and that may cause lower product prices and earnings."

  Kim has a "hold" rating on Samsung Electronics.

  Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the world's third-largest maker of computer memory chips, lost 3.1 percent to 10,900 won. United Microelectronics Corp, the world's second-largest supplier of made-to-order semiconductors, sank 0.5 percent to 22 New Taiwan dollars (65 US cents) in Taipei.

  Merrill Lynch & Co this week cut its rating on the semiconductor industry to "underweight" from "overweight." Novellus Systems Inc, whose equipment builds circuits in computer chips, said orders missed its own forecast.

  The Topix Bank Index climbed 1.4 percent. Mitsubishi Tokyo, Japan's largest bank by market value, surged 7.4 percent to 1.03 million yen. UFJ, the nation's No. 4 lender, rose 11 percent to 522,000 yen, the biggest gain since October.

  "UFJ's board agreed to ask Mitsubishi Tokyo to consider a merger," said Naoki Hirokawa, a UFJ spokesman.

  (Bloomberg News)




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