Tokyo, Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The shares of NEC Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., which make memory chips, plunged after Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said sales of its computer processors in the third quarter fell more than it expected.
NEC shares fell as much as 4.3 percent to 535 yen, the lowest level in at least 12 years, on Japanese stock exchanges. The shares of Hitachi dropped as much as 4.4 percent to 570 yen, the lowest since October 1998.
Advanced Micro's failure to meet its sales target is further evidence that Christmas season demand for personal computers and chips that power them has not materialized as expected. Intel Corp., Advanced Micro's bigger rival, had earlier said demand may not return by the holiday shopping season.
Hitachi and NEC make dynamic random-access memory chips, the main memory in personal computers, through their venture Elpida Memory Inc., the world's fifth-largest memory-chip maker.
Market research company International Data Corp. last month trimmed its estimate for growth in personal-computer shipments this year to 1.1 percent, or 135.5 million units, from 4.7 percent predicted in June.
NEC shares ended morning trade in Japan at 540 yen, down 3.4 percent. The shares of Hitachi fell 4.2 percent to 571 yen.
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