Panasonic shares soar 15pc after return to profit

TOKYO, Feb 5 (AFP): Panasonic shares rocketed 15 per cent Wednesday morning after the struggling Japanese electronics giant said it swung into the black with a $2.4 billion profit in the nine months to December.

The Tokyo-listed shares soared to 1,220 yen in the first response to the announcement after markets closed Tuesday.

Panasonic's stock, which had sunk seven per cent in the previous session in a broad market sell-off, briefly jumped as high as 20 per cent Wednesday morning.

The company-recovering from combined losses topping $15 billion in the past two fiscal years-said net profit came in at 243.0 billion yen ($2.4 billion) in the first three quarters, reversing a net loss of 623.8 billion yen over the same period a year ago. Sales rose 4.4 per cent.

The firm, which makes everything from appliances and televisions to GPS navigation products and batteries, credited its healthier balance sheet to cost-cutting, buoyant auto division sales, and a fall in the value of the yen.

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.