Lam Leads Drop in Chip-Equipment Shares on Japan Earthquake
April 07, 2011, 4:28 PM EDTBy Danielle Kucera
(Updates with closing share prices throughout.)
April 7 (Bloomberg) -- Lam Research Corp., which gets 15 percent of its sales from Japan, led chip-equipment stocks lower after a 7.1-magnitude aftershock hit that country, less than a month after a 9-magnitude earthquake left thousands dead and disrupted business.
Lam, based in Fremont, California, fell $2.80, or 5 percent, to $53.52 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. KLA-Tencor Corp., in nearby Milpitas, dropped $2.11, or 4.6 percent, to $44.06. That company gets 13 percent of its revenue from Japan.
The aftershock struck at 11:32 p.m. Tokyo time, about 215 miles (345 kilometers) northeast of the Japanese capital. A tsunami alert was issued and later canceled. The March 11 temblor and tsunami left more than 27,000 people dead or missing, crippled nuclear power plants and caused an estimated 25 trillion yen ($295 billion) in damage.
Applied Materials Inc. in Santa Clara, California, lost 25 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $15.50. Novellus Systems Inc. in nearby San Jose, fell $1.30, or 3.6 percent, to $35.15. Japan accounted for 8 percent of total revenue at Applied. Novellus gets about 4 percent of sales from Japan, according to Patrick Ho, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. in Dallas.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks the performance of 30 industry stocks, fell 0.5 percent to 443.25.
--With assistance from Ian King in San Francisco. Editors: Lisa Wolfson, Tom Giles
To contact the reporter on this story: Danielle Kucera in New York at dkucera6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
