The Japanese manufacturer Sony Corp Electronics predicted a weaker-than-expected profit in the current year, after the company last month, had to partially suspend the release of the best-selling image sensors to assess the damage from the recent earthquakes, affecting its plants.
According to the forecast of the Sony, the operating profit will grow by only 2 % to 300 billion yen ($ 2.75 billion) for the fiscal year ending in March 2017. Analysts polled by Reuters on average expected that this figure will be 409 billion yen.
According to Sony, there could be expected a profit of 400 billion yen, if there would not be the earthquake which occurred last month in Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu. The extent of the damage caused by earthquakes, caused to the company's business, is estimated at 115 billion yen, of which about 105 billion yen accounted for factories producing image sensors and digital cameras.
The company expects that its unit which specializes in the manufacture of electronic devices such as image sensors, can record an operating loss of 40 billion yen, compared with a loss of 29.3 billion a year earlier.
Sony owns about 40 % of the market of image sensor built on the basis of CMOS-technology.
Its sensors are also used in iPhone smartphones of Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL). According to analysts, the consequences of the earthquake for these devices are insignificant because Kumamoto is not the main production site.
As for the Japanese stock market, it closed on Tuesday lower because of the negative dynamics from the shipbuilding, insurance and automotive industry secotrs.
At the close on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Nikkei 225 fell 0.94%.
The leaders of growth among the Nikkei 225 index components were the shares Meidensha Corp. (T: 6508), which went up by 15.0 p. (3.58%), to 434.0. The worst performers were the shares of DOWA Holdings Co., Ltd. (T: 5714), the price of which has fallen by 34.0 p. (4.95%), to around 653.0.
Meanwhile USD/JPY was up 0.08% to 109.33, and EUR/JPY fell 0.01%, reaching 122.56.
USD Index rose 0.11% to 95.33.