Hynix Q2 loss narrows sharply on better chip market

SEOUL, July 24 (Reuters) - Hynix Semiconductor (000660.KS), the world's second-biggest maker of memory chips, reported a sharply narrower quarterly net loss on Friday as the memory market shows signs of recovering from a deep downturn.

Hynix reported a 58 billion won ($46.59 million) net loss in the quarter ended in June on a consolidated basis, in line with a 68.6 billion won shortfall forecast by earnings tracker IBES.

It was the South Korean company's seventh consecutive quarterly net loss, but compared favourably with a 711 billion won net loss in the year-earlier quarter and a revised 1.18 trillion won shortfall in January-March.

A long-awaited recovery in the memory chip sector may be finally materialising and prices of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, used in personal computers, have risen following massive output cuts.

Shares in Hynix have risen by one and a half times so far this year, fueled by hopes for the memory market turnaround, leading the wider market's .KS11 33 percent gain. (Reporting by Marie-France Han and Rhee So-eui; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)