Compal shares hit 16-month high on bullish Q3

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Shares of Compal (2324.TW), the world's No. 2 contract laptop PC maker, surged to a 16-month high on Friday after analysts told Reuters the firm is expecting strong shipment growth in the current quarter.

By 11:43 p.m. EDT, Compal shares rose more than 6 percent to an intraday high of T$36.95, its strongest level since May 2008.

Analysts had told Reuters on Thursday the company expects its third-quarter notebook PC shipments to jump 20 percent from the preceding three months, beating most market expectations.

"It should do pretty well in terms of shipments for the rest of the year," said Calvin Huang, an analyst at the Daiwa Institute of Research. "It's especially strong in the netbook segment, and that's growing really fast."

Shipments of the low-cost netbook, a low-power portable computer optimized for web surfing and other Internet activities, is forecast by many analysts to grow by more than 100 percent this year, while the overall PC market remains flat.

Compal competes with crosstown rival Quanta (2382.TW) to make PCs for some of the world's top tech brands like HP (HPQ.N), Dell (DELL.O) and Acer (2353.TW), allowing them to concentrate on design work and not having to manage large production lines.

It announced market-beating quarterly results in late August, helped by robust demand for notebook PCs and LCD televisions.

(Reporting by Kelvin Soh, Editing by Jacqueline Wong)