Perfect World revenue surges, shares rise

Perfect World revenue surges, shares rise

Stock Market Predictions

(Global Markets) - Chinese online game developer Perfect World Co Ltd (PWRD.O) reported a 32 percent jump in fourth-quarter revenue, partly helped by strong demand for its multiplayer role-playing game "Zhu Xian," sending its shares up 17 percent after hours.

Net income attributable to shareholders was 260 million yuan ($41.3 million), or 5.45 yuan (87 cents) per ADS, compared with 125.2 million yuan, or 2.36 yuan, a year ago.

Excluding items, the company, known for its popular role-playing game "Legend of Martial Arts" earned 5.94 yuan (94 cents) per ADS.

"Our revenues ... beat the high end of our expectations, due to the strong performance of our existing games and the continued strength of our overseas business," Chief Executive Michael Chi said in a statement.

Revenue for the quarter was 776.4 million yuan ($123.4 million).

The company, however, expects first-quarter revenue to decline to between 714 million yuan and 753 million yuan.

The company also named Senior Vice President Robert Xiao as its chief operating officer.

Shares of the company were up at $14.68 in trading after the bell. They closed at $12.55 Thursday on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das)

Viterra opens up for bidding war, shares jump

Viterra opens up for bidding war, shares jump

Stock Market Predictions

WINNIPEG, Manitoba/LONDON (Global Markets) - Canada's largest grain handler, Viterra (VT.TO), said on Thursday it has opened its books to potential buyers, setting the stage for a possible bidding war and sending its shares 10 percent higher.

Viterra said it has established a process for considering expressions of interest, including confidentiality agreements.

It shed no light on who might bid, but a person familiar with the matter said that Swiss-based Glencore (GLEN.L) and U.S.-based Bunge (BG.N) and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM.N) were involved in the auction.

"This is a public company, it won't take that long to resolve an outcome," the person said.

Another person said that Glencore made a very strong case to support an acquisition. "They have given a lot of thought to this. They are very motivated," the second source said.

The Financial Times said Glencore was teaming up with two Canadian companies, grain handler Richardson International and fertilizer company Agrium Inc (AGU.TO) on a joint bid.

A Richardson spokeswoman said the company would not comment on speculation, while ADM and Bunge declined to comment. An Agrium spokesperson could not be immediately reached.

Viterra, based in Regina Saskatchewan, stands to gain from a government decision to end the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on Western Canadian wheat and barley sales, as the change will let grain handlers buy wheat and barley for milling or export directly from Prairie farmers for the first time in 69 years.

That means a buyer would win access to Canada's prized canola, spring wheat, oats and durum wheat supplies. Canada, the world's No. 8 grains producer, is the leading exporter of each crop.

POLITICAL HURDLES

Teaming up with Canadian players would likely help Glencore navigate the politically charged federal review process if it goes through with a bid.

A foreign takeover of Viterra would be subject to a federal government review to determine whether it is of "net benefit" to the country, although the takeover is likely to be less contentious than a 2010 foreign bid for fertilizer giant Potash Corp, which the government eventually vetoed.

Viterra shares jumped to just over C$16, the price tipped as the floor for a takeover in an unconfirmed report on website dealReporter.com. The stock was at around C$11 before talk of a takeover first circulated last week.

A bid of C$16 a share would value the company at about C$5.9 billion ($5.94 billion).

Viterra, which said it had engaged financial and legal advisers, said it was aware of media reports of takeover interest at C$16 per share. But it urged caution.

"Viterra cautions investors not to rely on these press reports as there can be no assurance that a transaction will occur and that if one does occur, there can be no assurance at what price it will be completed," it said in a statement.

Jason Zandberg, who follows Viterra for PI Financial Corp, said the dealReporter report said Viterra was asking suitors to promise to bid C$16 a share before it would let them examine its financial position.

He did not know how credible the dealReporter report was, and said he had never heard of a company asking prospective bidders to agree to a floor price before they even inspected their target's books.

"It's sounding as though there are multiple parties at least rolling up their sleeves," Zandberg said. "Whether they put in a bid, we don't know."

Viterra shares closed up 9.8 percent, or C$1.44, at C$16.09 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, touching a nine-year high.

The shares have increased in value by nearly half in the past week as talk of a takeover began to swirl.

"My stock was worth $11 on (last) Thursday," said Ron Mayers, senior vice-president of Laurentian Bank Services. "You think I want to go back? I'm a seller here.

"This company is gone. It's just a matter of price."

Viterra, which competes with Cargill CARG.UL and Richardson, is the only major Canadian grain handler that is publicly traded. It has its roots as the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, a farmer-owned cooperative.

Along with Viterra, U.S.-based energy and grains trader Gavilon Group is also in play.

Viterra owns about 45 percent of Western Canada's grain-handling capacity and a bid for it by another major Canadian grain player would likely raise competition concerns.

The Financial Times said Viterra would split into three after a successful Glencore/Agrium/Richardson bid, with Glencore taking the grain-handling business, Agrium getting 261 farm product stores and Richardson taking the food-processing business.

($1=$0.99 Canadian)

(Additional reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago and Euan Rocha in Toronto; editing by Rob Wilson and Janet Guttsman)

Asseco Poland 2011 net falls 4 percent, less than forecasts

Asseco Poland 2011 net falls 4 percent, less than forecasts

Stock Market Predictions

WARSAW (Global Markets) - Eastern Europe's top software maker Asseco Poland ACPP.WA reported a 4 percent drop in 2011 net profit, weighed down by lower margins at subsidiaries and long-term contracts drawing to a close. But it was a smaller fall than analysts had expected.

The group, which is considering a Nasdaq listing, said late on Friday that its net was 397 million zlotys ($126.8 million), compared to a 9 percent drop to 378 million forecast in a Global Markets poll of analysts.

Its fourth-quarter net profit was 106.5 million zlotys compared to 87 million expected by analysts.

Asseco is in the midst of a 250 million zloty ($79.2 million) hostile bid for local rival Sygnity COMW.WA.

($1 = 3.1566 Polish zlotys)

(Reporting by Dagmara Leszkowicz, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)

Real Goods Solar sees weak Q1, FY sales

Real Goods Solar sees weak Q1, FY sales

Stock Market Predictions

(Global Markets) - Real Goods Solar (RSOL.O), an installer of solar energy systems, forecast full-year and first-quarter revenue below analysts' estimates, hurt by delays on a number of significant commercial projects.

The company's shares, which have gained more than 43 percent of their value over the past 3 months, fell as much as 9 percent to $1.37 on Friday afternoon on the Nasdaq.

Real Goods, whose commercial customers range from wineries to schools and apartment buildings to retail facilities, sees $20 million in revenue for the first quarter and $145 million for the full year.

Analysts were expecting a revenue of $32.7 million for the current quarter and $193 million for the full year, according to Thomson Global Markets I/B/E/S.

"We have had a few unfortunate delays on projects that we expected originally to be built over the course of Q1 and Q2," Chief Executive Bill Yearsley said on a conference call with analysts.

The company's fourth-quarter revenue almost doubled on its acquisition of Alteris Renewables Inc.

(Reporting by Sunayan Bhattacharjee in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane)

Apple cements tablet market lead with new iPad

Apple cements tablet market lead with new iPad

Stock Market Predictions

LONDON/NEW YORK (Global Markets) - Apple Inc's newest iPad looked like another hot seller on Friday as hundreds lined up at stores around the world to get their hands on the tablet, though the crowds and waiting times in some cities were less than in previous years.

The third-generation iPad has only a few new features including faster wireless connectivity and a crisper display, but analysts nonetheless expect Apple to dominate the tablet market well into next year.

"I just got hyped into it, I guess," said David Tarasenko, a 34-year-old construction manager who was the first to pick one up from a Telstra wireless store at midnight in Sydney.

The buzz helped propel Apple shares to touch a record high of $600 on the Nasdaq on Thursday, though they later erased gains and were trading at around $585 on Friday afternoon.

In New York, the queues were nothing compared with previous years. "I came by at midnight and nobody was here," said Peter Brown, 51, who owns a marketing and communications company in London and was waiting in line at Apple's flagship New York City store on Fifth Avenue.

The new iPad - Apple has refrained from calling it iPad 3 - has faster chips, fourth-generation wireless, a sharper display and a better camera, making it harder for competitors like Samsung's Galaxy, which also lack Apple's range of apps and content, to catch up.

On price, too, Apple's rivals will struggle to beat it. The new iPad starts at $499 in the United States, 479 euros ($630) in Germany and 42,800 yen ($510) in Japan. Only Amazon Inc's far more basic Kindle Fire is significantly cheaper.

Apple will continue to sell the iPad 2 but has dropped its price by $100 to start at $399. Some analysts expect sales of the new iPad to overtake the old. So far, the company has sold 55 million tablets since the first iPad was launched in 2010.

Even in a tough economic climate in some parts of the world, many buyers, like 27-year-old Steve Henry in Paris, said they would scrimp elsewhere if necessary.

"I save money on my other purchases for high-tech shopping," said Henry, a systems engineer at a railway company who was hoping to buy his first iPad mainly to watch films and read during his more than two hours of travel per day.

Some U.S. retailers offered special deals. At Target, customers who traded in their working iPad 2 could receive up to $350 in store credit, a spokeswoman said.

MARKET LEAD

Tablet sales are expected to increase to 326 million by 2015 with Apple largely dominating the market, according to research firm Gartner. By then tablets could rival sales of desktop computers, which Gartner expects to total 368 million units this year.

The enduring popularity of Apple products, and stock, have provided Chief Executive Tim Cook, who took over after the death of Steve Jobs last year, with a good start. The stock has jumped 45 percent this year to a market value of about $550 billion.

Canaccord Genuity analysts raised their target price on Apple stock to $710 from $665. Dickie Chang, an analyst with technology research firm IDC, said Cook will need to do more in future to keep up the company's astonishing momentum.

"The iPad is already a pretty mature product and it's hard to revolutionize it any further," he said. "I think he may have to come up with another product to mark his stamp. That could come in the form of launching a smaller iPad with a longer battery life, for instance."

UBS raised its target price to $675 from $550, and said the expected launch of the redesigned iPhone 5 in October was the big catalyst ahead.

Apple's top manufacturer is Foxconn Technology Group, whose factories in China are under scrutiny over labor practices. Small groups of labor activists tried to draw attention to the issue at stores in New York and San Francisco, where Apple employees handed out umbrellas to customers waiting in the rain.

Charlotte Hill, a representative of change.org, called for better worker protection. "We are hoping Apple's workers and people higher up in the corporate chain will hear us," she said in San Francisco, where about 200 to 300 people had lined up prior to the opening of the downtown store.

Amanda Bell, a law student and part of a group of protesters in New York, said: "There is a cognitive dissonance for most people between loving the product and hating the way it's made."

SMUGGLERS

The new iPad went on sale on Friday in 10 regions including Britain, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Switzerland. Most of the countries outside the United States do not yet have the faster, fourth-generation telecoms networks that the new iPad supports, but that did not stop Apple's fans.

"I've come from Russia to buy an iPad for my three-year-old son David," Oleg Konovalov, a newspaper salesman, told Global Markets in Tokyo. "Everyone in Russia wants an iPad, but to buy it there I will have to wait several months."

"This reminds me of the time 30 years ago when I waited 8 hours in the cold to see Lenin's Mausoleum."

In London, 21-year-old Piotr, who works at noodle bar Wagamama, said: "It's not for me, it's to sell. I will bring them to Russia to sell them."

In the Chinese city of Shenzhen, people keen to get their hands on the new iPad waited for them to be smuggled across the border from Hong Kong.

"We don't have iPad3s yet, but some will arrive later in the day when the students deliver them to us. We'll have more supplies over this weekend," said a store operator in Shenzhen.

"Customs has become stricter, but if you take one at a time across the border, that's still pretty safe. At most they'll ask you to take it out of the box to prove that it's for self use."

Online reviews of the new iPad overwhelmingly praised Apple for its improved screen resolution. "My epiphany came when I placed my iPad 2 next to the new model, with the same text on the screen. Letters and words that had seemed sharp on the older model five minutes earlier suddenly looked fuzzier," said one reviewer.

Shintaro Aizawa, 16, who waited 15 hours outside a Tokyo store, said: "After this, well, I'll first of all open it up and check it's as beautiful as I thought. Then I'll get some sleep."

GOLD STANDARD

As consumers lined up around city streets to buy the iPad, one firm that took the new device apart said Qualcomm Inc, Broadcom Corp and Samsung Electronics had all held on to their prized roles as key parts suppliers.

The inner workings of the iPad are similar to previous models, based on a "teardown" by a tinkerer from California gadget-repair firm iFixit, who queued up in Australia to get one of the new tablets and quickly took it apart for a Web blog.

IFixit said the iPad's display appears to be from Samsung, Apple's closest rival in the tablet market. It includes a Qualcomm LTE cellphone chip and a Qualcomm wireless modem for 3G and 4G. Broadcom supplies a semiconductor handling wireless tasks like WiFi and Bluetooth, according to iFixit.

Other technology partners include ARM Holdings Plc, Toshiba Corp, Elpida Memory Inc, Avago Technologies Ltd, Triquint Semiconductor Inc and Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc.

Analysts said Cupertino, California-based Apple sometimes uses more than one supplier for a part, so what is found in one iPad may not be present in others. Still, teardowns are a key source of information for investors and the appearance of unexpected chips can move stocks. ($1 = 0.7651 euros = 83.2900 Japanese yen)

(Additional reporting by Lee Chyen Yee in Hong Kong, James Topham and Ruairidh Vikllar in Tokyo, Sisi Tang in Hong Kong, Jens Hack in Munich, Axelle du Crest in Paris, Pauline Askin in Sydney, Dhanya Skariachan in New York and Poornima Gupta in San Francisco; Writing by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Matthew Lewis)

Analysts worry that something's amiss at Oracle

Analysts worry that something's amiss at Oracle

Stock Market Predictions

BOSTON (Global Markets) - Oracle Corp may soon run out of excuses to feed Wall Street.

When the world's third-largest software maker missed earnings estimates for the first time in a decade back in December, it blamed an unpredictable global economy. It seemed plausible at the time.

But growing evidence suggests the company is sufferingdue to challenges that have nothing to do with the macro economy: mounting competition from traditional foe SAP, the loss of a key IT partner in Hewlett Packard, and a hardware business that is becoming a thorn in its side.

Analysts have become increasingly worried that the hardware business Oracle acquired in 2010 with its $5.6 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems has turned into a liability, with sales falling short of expectations.

The company's bread-and-butter database business - Oracle is the world's biggest maker of database software - may face off against competition from a re-energized SAP before the end of this year. And Oracle's highly touted new generation of business management software, released in 2011 after years of delays in development, has been slow to take off.

While this is happening in a still-shaky tech-spending environment, Oracle's rivals do not seem to be feeling the same pinch. SAP, International Business Machines Corp, Salesforce.com and VMware recently released relatively strong results and bullish outlooks, causing investors to question whether something is amiss at Oracle.

CEO Larry Ellison will deliver his latest report card on the state of the business on March 20, when Oracle releases quarterly results. An increasingly skeptical crew of Wall Street analysts will be parsing his words and pouring through the numbers for signs of fundamental business problems, regardless of whether the company meets expectations for the period.

"Oracle is a company with some issues right now," said long-time Oracle watcher Rick Sherlund, a Nomura Securities analyst.

Those issues are reflected in its stock price, which has gained just 3 percent since the company reported quarterly results in December, compared with a 17 percent rise in the Nasdaq Composite Index.

Oracle officials declined to comment for this story.

SUN A MISTAKE?

Some analysts believe buying Sun has undermined sales of Ellison's software because it put Oracle in direct competition with hardware makers who had long been some of the biggest resellers of his database programs and other products.

"They made a mistake getting into the hardware business. How it resolves itself, I'm not really sure," said Fred Hickey, who has been monitoring Oracle since the 1980s and is editor of the High-Tech Strategist Newsletter for investors.

While hardware makers such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Dell Inc continue to sell Oracle products, these days they are putting less effort into doing so, he said.

The problem may be most acute with HP, the world's biggest computer maker.

A bitter feud has erupted between Oracle and HP since Ellison's friend, Mark Hurd, abruptly resigned as HP CEO amid a sexual harassment scandal. Ellison admonished HP's board for the way it handled the matter, calling them "cowardly," and then hired Hurd.

The two companies have since filed lawsuits against each other over Oracle's decision to stop producing software for high-end HP computers.

SAP's HANA DATABASE

Meanwhile, Oracle's rivals aren't standing still.

Several analysts say they are concerned about a new strategic weapon in SAP's arsenal: a specialized database dubbed Hana that pulled in 160 million euros ($208 million) in sales in its first two quarters on the market, ahead of SAP's target of 100 million euros.

SAP has packaged the technology with hardware from IBM as a niche product, a business intelligence tool to help companies analyze large quantities of data. Oracle developed a similar product - dubbed Exalytics - that it launched this month.

The bigger threat from Hana, however, is that SAP is tweaking the technology so it can be used to hold data for business management applications that handle corporate accounting, human resources and procurement software.

The bulk of SAP applications currently run on Oracle database software, and the German company is the biggest reseller of that product. But if Hana wins acceptance as an alternative to the Oracle database, that could either reduce sales of the Oracle database or force Oracle to slash prices.

SAP Chief Technology Officer Vishal Sikka told Global Markets his company expects to start selling a version of Hana that will serve as a database for SAP's core suite of business management software by the end of this year.

Sikka has scheduled a press conference in San Francisco, not far from Oracle's Redwood City headquarters, on April 10 to unveil SAP's strategy for expanding in the database market.

While it is too soon to handicap SAP's chances for success in that endeavor, analysts say concern is growing among Oracle investors.

"This is something we will hear talked about a lot this year. This is creating apprehension for Oracle," said Sherlund of Nomura Securities. "It's an issue that Oracle will have to respond to with investors."

Jefferies & Co analyst Ross MacMillan cut his recommendation on Oracle shares to "hold" from "buy" on Monday, citing Hana as one of several reasons.

He said he was also concerned about the outlook for the hardware business, whose sales have dropped every quarter since Oracle purchased Sun.

"One of the questions that has been on investors' minds is: When do we get to the point where the hardware business can grow?" MacMillan said.

He said Oracle could lose some applications sales as it tries to persuade existing users to upgrade to a new product line known as Fusion Apps, which is loaded with new bells and whistles.

MacMillan said users are likely to look at other options from Oracle rivals as they consider upgrading to Fusion Apps because it will be an expensive, lengthy process to convert all of a company's systems over to a new type of software.

"If you are going to upgrade, it opens the door to look around and see what else is available," he said.

To be sure, one thing that Wall Street analysts do not seemed to be concerned about is another earnings miss, given Oracle's established skill at managing the bottom line. Several said they expect the company to meet or beat modest expectations for its fiscal third quarter, ended February 29.

Wall Street analysts are projecting that third-quarter revenue grew 2.5 percent from a year earlier to $9.02 billion, according to Thomson Global Markets I/B/E/S. They expect the company to post a profit, excluding one-time items, of 56 cents per share, up from 54 cents a year earlier.

($1 = 0.7677 euros)

(Additional reporting by Nicola Leske in New York, editing by Edwin Chan and John Wallace)

Airline SAS posts good start to year, shares up

Airline SAS posts good start to year, shares up

Stock Market Predictions

STOCKHOLM (Global Markets) - Struggling airline SAS (SAS.ST), recently embarked on another round of cost cuts to end years of losses, reported better trading than expected in the first two months of the year, sending its shares up 14 percent in thin volume.

The Scandinavian carrier struck a rare upbeat note, offering a glimmer of hope to investors who have seen its shares languishing near a lifetime low hit only weeks ago, though it cautioned the first quarter would be seasonally weak.

"The first two months of the year have been trading above plans and SAS's cash position is substantially ahead of plan," the company said.

SAS, half-owned by the governments of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, has been fighting for years to cut its costs so it can compete with no-frills airlines like Norwegian (NWC.OL) and Ryanair (RYA.I).

Its latest 5 billion Swedish crown ($729.28 million) program of cost cuts and revenue measures - dubbed 4Excellence - was launched last year, the latest in a long line of turnaround efforts.

In 2011, SAS made a loss of 1.6 billion crowns after a loss the previous year of 3.1 billion. The last time it made a full year profit was in 2007.

But SAS has now replaced its ageing and expensive fleet, renegotiated contracts with staff and shed non-core businesses.

Analysts do not expect the economic downturn to be as bad this time as in 2008-2009.

In a note on Thursday, S&P said it expected revenue passenger kilometers - the number of seat kilometers flown on which the airline earns revenues - could fall about 2 percent this year before a slight recovery in 2013.

"We do not see airlines' profitability falling to the extent that it did in the last recession," S&P said in a note.

SAS, which raised 5 billion crowns in a rights issue in early 2010, is also sitting on a pile of cash.

At the end of 2011 it had cash and cash equivalents of 3.8 billion crowns and unused credit facilities of 5 billion crowns.

The airline said on Thursday it had renegotiated loan covenants with banks to give it even greater financial flexibility. SAS said it did not believe it would have to use its expanded facility.

(Editing by David Cowell)

Steel Dynamics sees quaterly profit below Street goal

Steel Dynamics sees quaterly profit below Street goal

Stock Market Predictions

(Global Markets) - Steel Dynamics Inc (STLD.O) gave a first-quarter profit forecast below Wall Street estimates, saying it was hit by an unexpected pricing squeeze and lower customer orders.

The announcement came a day after rival U.S. steelmaker Nucor Inc (NUE.N) cited similar reasons for setting a lower-than-expected first-quarter earnings target and AK Steel (AKS.N) said it expected a first-quarter loss because of weak demand.

Shares of all three companies rose by up to 3 percent, as analysts said investors were looking beyond the short-term hit and instead focused on the rosier longer-term demand.

In afternoon trading on the Nasdaq, Steel Dynamics' stock was up 3.2 percent at $15.19. On the New York Stock Exchange, Nucor was up 2.2 percent at $44.41, and AK Steel was up 3.2 percent at $8.15.

"The stocks were likely up on broader news on consumer confidence and not reacting to warning factors already known," said analyst Bridget Freas, of Morningstar.

"Even AK Steel said demand would be better in the second quarter, so there is positive momentum," she said.

Steel Dynamics said it expects to post earnings in the range of 15 to 20 cents per share for the first quarter. Analysts on average have expected Steel Dynamics to report earnings of 36 cents per share, according to Thomson Global Markets I/B/E/S.

"While sequential quarterly financial improvements are expected in both the company's steel and metals recycling operations, these improvements are somewhat tempered by unexpected margin compression that began to occur mid-quarter," the Fort Wayne, Indiana-based company said in a statement.

It said flat-roll steel markets moderated more quickly than the price of raw materials such as scrap metal, "against a backdrop of increased import interest, introduction of additional domestic capacity and reduced order activity.

"Reduced steel customer buying activity seemed linked to an anticipation of lower scrap pricing, despite the continued strength in demand associated with energy, construction equipment, agricultural and automotive sectors," it said.

Steel Dynamics noted the first-quarter estimate was better than the profit of 14 cents per share in the fourth quarter, but lower than first-quarter 2011 earnings per share of 46 cents.

On Thursday, Nucor cited pricing pressure and buyer uncertainty for a first-quarter earnings target in the range of 30 to 35 cents per share - below the analysts' consensus of 69 cents per share.

And AK Steel forecast a net loss of 11 to 15 cents per share, compared with analysts' expectations of a small profit, as it sees shipments falling about 8 percent amid weak demand.

(Reporting By Steve James in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Dave Zimmerman and Matthew Lewis)

Cytori's aesthetic surgery device gets FDA nod

Cytori's aesthetic surgery device gets FDA nod

Stock Market Predictions

(Global Markets) - Cytori Therapeutics (CYTX.O) said U.S. health regulators approved an upgraded version of its device used in fat reduction surgeries, sending the company's shares up as much as 21 percent on Friday morning.

The device -- Puregraft 850 -- is already approved in Europe, and provides processing of up to 850 ml of tissue -- a much larger volume than the original system, according to the medical device maker.

Puregraft is Cytori's key technology, used for the preparation of a fat graft to help in targeted fat reduction. The first system, Puregraft 250, was approved in the United States in 2010.

Cytori's shares were trading up 19 percent at $3.36 on Friday, making them one of the biggest percentage gainers on the Nasdaq. They touched a high of $3.42 earlier in the session.

(Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon)

Teekay Tankers sees stronger Q1 as rates rise

Teekay Tankers sees stronger Q1 as rates rise

Stock Market Predictions

(Global Markets) - Oil tanker operator Teekay Tankers Ltd (TNK.N) expects a better first quarter than last year, its chief executive told Global Markets, echoing views of sector-bellwether Frontline (FRO.OL) (FRO.N) that demand has picked up considerably in recent weeks.

The tanker market was hit hard last year, mainly due to oversupply, with average daily rates for smaller classes of vessels falling to a low of $4,400. Rates have quadrupled now.

"We follow pretty closely to the tanker market. This quarter rates in general have been up, and so we expect our rates to go up as well ... we expect this quarter to be better than the first quarter last year," Teekay Tankers CEO Bruce Chan said.

The company had reported a profit of 12 cents per share and sales of $31.7 million in the first quarter last year. For the current quarter, analysts are expecting a profit of 4 cents, on revenue of $31.4 million, according to Thomson Global Markets I/B/E/S.

On Thursday, Frontline's chief executive told Global Markets demand has risen on surprisingly high activity from ships transporting oil to China.

"Overall for this year, we think that the supply and demand picture for tankers is balanced," Teekay Tankers' Chan, who is in his late thirties, said.

Bermuda-based Teekay Tankers, formed in 2007 by Teekay Corp (TK.N), could also look at buying product tankers -- which are used to move petrochemical from refineries.

Its shares were trading up 11 percent on Friday afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks of Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG.N) and Nordic American Tanker Shipping (NAT.N) were also up after Frontline's comments boosted investor confidence.

Frontline's U.S-listed shares jumped up 25 percent on Friday and were one of the top percentage gainers on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Divya Lad in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane)