Major firms post extra losses of 4 tril. yen in FY 2010 due to quake+

TOKYO, May 16 Kyodo -
SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. said Monday that 1,197 firms listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange posted a combined 4.36 trillion yen in extraordinary losses in fiscal 2010, up 20 percent from the previous year, mainly due to the effects of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Many of the losses were apparently attributable to damage caused by the disaster to their production facilities and the falling stock price of Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant which was crippled by the quake and tsunami.
For the January-March quarter, their net profits fell 60 percent from the October-December period, clearly showing that the recovery trend was halted in the wake of the disaster.
Around 20 percent of the companies have decided to forgo releasing earnings projections for fiscal 2011 starting in April.
By industry sector, extraordinary losses increased by 2.5 times from the previous year for steelmakers, by about 48 percent for paper-pulp makers and by about 36 percent for land transport firms.
JX Holdings Inc., whose oil refinery in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, was damaged by the disaster, posted extraordinary losses of 126 billion yen, while Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd. booked such losses of 62 billion yen due to damage to its plant in Kashima, Ibaraki Prefecture.
For fiscal 2010 ended in March, the firms' net profits rose 1.7 times from the previous year to 14.87 trillion yen for the second straight year of growth due to cost-cutting efforts and strong demand by emerging economies.
However, their net profits in the January-March quarter plunged 65.8 percent from the October-December period to 1.54 trillion yen.
==Kyodo