Toyota Sales Fall 28.4%, Sharp Forecasts Loss

Darlington Musarurwa
06 Feb, 2009
New York City

Toyota Motor Corp. revenues fall 28.4% to 4.8 trillion yen in the third quarter. Sharp Corp reversed its earlier projection of income to a loss for the current year. Sharp now estimates a loss of 100 billion yen from a profit of 60 billion yen projected earlier.

[R]5:00AM New York, 7:00PM - Toyota Motor Corp. revenues fall 28.4% to 4.8 trillion yen in the third quarter ending December 31. Japan is likely to provide a bailout to commercial airlines.[/R]

Stocks in Japan traded higher on the hopes that the U.S. plan to bail out banks next week may bring more stability in the financial markets and banking sector.

The yen also fell to 92.25 against the yen yesterday.

In Tokyo trading Nikkei 225 index rose 1.6% or 126.97 to 8,076.62, rising 1% for the week, and the broader Topix Index gained 0.6% or 4.43 to 790.84, dropping 0.4% in the week.

In the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange 9.4 billion shares valued at 637 billion yen were traded and in the second section 116 million shares valued at 1 billion yen changed hands.

Of the Nikkei 225 index stocks, 142 increased, 75 declined, and 8 were unchanged. Trend Micro led gainers in the index shares with a rise of 11.5%.

Japan to Bailout Aviation Sector

Japan public broadcaster NHK reported today that the country''s transport minister Kazuyoshi Kaneko has pledged to provide aid for the commercial aviation sector. The package is likely to be offered at the end of the current fiscal year in March.

Japan Airlines Corp reported today it is forecasting group operating loss of 37 billion yen in the fiscal year ending March, substantially lower than 28 billion yen profit projected in November last year.

The airlines realized a group operating loss of 8.86 billion yen in the nine months to December compared to profit of 82.58 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.

In the April-December period, group operating loss increased to 1.92 billion yen from 20.45 billion yen.

Sharp Corp. Cuts Full Year Profit Forecast to a Loss

Sharp Corp reported today that it has revised its net income forecast for the year ending March 31 to a loss of 100 billion yen from a profit of 60 billion yen projected earlier, while operating income was revised to loss of 30 billion yen from a gain of 130 billion yen.

Annual net sales are also estimated to drop 15.2% to 2.9 trillion yen from the previous forecast of 3.4 trillion yen.

The company was affected by restructuring charges from the reorganization o LCD plants and other measures, loss on impairment of investments in securities on falling equities and a loss on violation of the antitrust law.

Gainers & Losers

Trend Micro led gainers in the Nikkei 225 index shares with a rise of 11.5% followed by increases in Softbank Corp. of 7.3%, in Nippon Paper Group of 7.2%, in Tokyo Electron of 7.2%, and Hokuetsu Paper of 7%.

Furukawa led decliners in the Nikkei 225 index shares with a decline of 4.6% followed by losses in Nippon Suisan of 4.4%, in Aeon Co. Ltd. of 4.3%, in Denki Kagaku of 4.3%, and Kobe Steel of 4.2%.

Toyota Net Income Drops to a Loss of 164 billion yen in Q3

Toyota Motor Corp. reported today net revenues fell 28.4% to 4.8 trillion yen in the three months ended December from the comparable year ago period, while operating income declined to a loss of 360.6 billion yen from 601.5 billion yen.

Net income in the period fell to a loss of 164.7 billion yen from 458.6 billion yen a year ago.

Vehicle sales plunged by 443,000 to 1.84 million units from same period a year earlier, as sales in Japan plummeted by 76,000 units to 465,000 units.

Sales in North America dropped 235,000 units, in Europe 73,000 units, and in Asia 19,000 units.

In the financial services sector operating income declined by 144.8 billion yen to a loss of 123.9 billion yen.

Toyota projects that consolidated vehicle sales in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009 will fall by 220,000 units to 7.32 million units.

The automaker expects full year profit to fall to 350 billion year in the year ended March 31.