Toshiba Q3 misses expectations; keeps outlook

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp <6502.T>, Japan's biggest chipmaker, posted a smaller-than-expected operating profit as rising materials costs and tumbling PC and TV prices outweighed the benefits of a chip price recovery.

TOSHIBA (JP6502.TK) the world's No.2 maker of NAND-type flash memory chips after Samsung Electronics Co <005930.KS>, said it earned an operating profit of 10.22 billion yen ($113.6 million) in October-December, missing a market consensus of 25.7 billion yen.

Toshiba, which supplies chips to Apple Inc , kept its annual operating profit outlook at 100 billion yen, below a consensus average of 136 billion yen by 21 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Toshiba, which also owns U.S. nuclear firm Westinghouse, is fighting to clinch nuclear power plant orders, while it tries to expand in lithium-ion batteries and power grids to counter chip price volatility.

Shares in Toshiba gained 8.5 percent in October-December, outpacing a 3 percent rise in Tokyo's index of electrical machinery stocks <.IELEC.T>.

(Reporting by Mayumi Negishi; Editing by Anshuman Daga)