Hitachi, for long the king of Japanese electronics companies, said it incurred a parent net loss of 124.66 billion yen ($1.05 billion) for the six months to September 30. It said the company expected the loss to reach 260 billion yen in the year to March 31, 1999.

Hitachi blamed the lacklustre performance on weak prices of computer memory chips, known as dynamic random-access memories, and overall shrinking demand for electronics products such as personal computers and colour display tubes for PCs.

Shares in Hitachi ended dowm 13 yen at 595 on Tuesday, although the results had somewhat been discounted.

In September, Hitachi issued painful loss warnings for 1998-99 on what its president, Tsutomu Kanai, called "the worst crisis in the history of the company". Hitachi said at that time that it would take a whopping 160billion yen special loss for 1998-99 to push restructuring, including 4,000 job cuts this year through natural attrition and management overhauls.

On a group basis, Hitachi has said it expects a net loss of 130 billion yen for the first six months and a net loss of 250 billion yen for the year to next March 31.