Ohara Shares Tumble as Optical-Glass Maker Expects Turn to Loss

Ohara Inc. fell the most in five months in Tokyo trading after the maker of optical glass reversed its full-year earnings projection to a loss, due to a plunge in demand.

The stock plummeted 9.9 percent to 955 yen as of 9:20 a.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, heading for the steepest fall since Dec. 22. The company had the second-largest drop on the Topix index, which slid as much as 1.6 percent.

Ohara expects a net loss of 970 million yen ($10.3 million) for the year ending Oct. 31, it said in a release yesterday. Ohara had forecast a 1.37 billion yen profit compared with the 3.92 billion yen it earned a year earlier.

The company’s customers have adjusted inventories and curtailed capital investment, weighing on Ohara’s earnings, the statement said. Ohara, based in Kanagawa prefecture, near Tokyo, slashed its sales outlook by 24 percent to 20 billion yen.