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SanDisk Soars on Asian Memory Prices
Tuesday April 1, 4:56 pm ET
By Sean O'Driscoll, AP Business Writer
SanDisk Soars As Higher Asian Memory Prices Add Confidence to Market

NEW YORK (AP) -- Memory chip maker SanDisk Corp. soared Tuesday as Asian competitors raised prices after nearly two years of oversupply and depressed profit margins.

Piper Jaffray analyst Amit Kapur said in an interview that the announcement by two major Asian chip makers on Monday has helped bring back confidence to the sector and said prices may stabilize in the next few quarters.

Kapur said March prices suggest that the market is already beginning to stabilize.

The market may have shown undue concern for SanDisk's profitability, he said, especially as the company's main product, NAND flash chips, continue to penetrate the cell phone market.

He said there is strong NAND demand in the high end of the cell phone market but said demand is increasingly coming from the mid-range cell phone sector. This should be a strong driving force in the next few years, he added.

SanDisk shares rose $2.20, or 9.8 percent, to close at $24.77 Tuesday. They have traded in the last 12 months between $19.54 and $59.75.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080401/sandisk_mover.html?.v=2