Hitachi Climbs After Maintaining Profit Forecast: Tokyo Mover
February 03, 2012, 6:04 PM ESTBy Naoko Fujimura
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Hitachi Ltd., Japan’s second-largest manufacturer, jumped the most in more than 10 months in Tokyo trading after keeping its annual profit forecast unchanged.
Hitachi jumped as much as 7.5 percent, the biggest intraday gain since March 30, to 429 yen before trading at 428 yen as of 10:41 a.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 0.2 percent
The company yesterday forecast operating income of 400 billion yen ($5.2 billion) for the year ending March 31, keeping its November estimate, citing higher-than-expected orders for auto parts. That contrasts with rivals Toshiba Corp. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. who reduced their forecasts earlier this week.
“Investors are praising Hitachi for managing to maintain its forecast when its peers are all cutting,” said Yuichi Ishida, a Tokyo-based analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities Co., who has an “outperform” rating on the stock.
Today’s gain boosted Hitachi’s advance this year to 5.9 percent, compared with a 4.7 percent climb for the Nikkei 225.
Hitachi is accelerating moves to cut costs at its television business, where it already planned to end domestic production in September, the company said yesterday. Flat-panel television shipments fell 59 percent in Japan in December, after government subsidies expired, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association said Jan. 25.
--With assistance from Yuki Yamaguchi in Tokyo. Editors: Garry Smith, Frank Longid
To contact the reporter on this story: Naoko Fujimura in Tokyo at nfujimura@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net
