KT&G's net plunges 52.3 pct in Q2

SEOUL, July 20 (Yonhap) -- KT&G Corp., South Korea's largest tobacco manufacturer, said Wednesday that its second-quarter earnings tumbled 52.3 percent from a year earlier due mainly to a one-off factor. Net income came to 215.3 billion won (US$204 million) in the April-June period, compared with a profit of 451.4 billion won in the same period last year, the company said in a regulatory filing. Sales gained 5.1 percent to 898.5 billion won over the period, while operating profit sank 20.7 percent to 281.4 billion won, it said. Last year's second-quarter net profit included a 239.7 billion won special income from the sale of a stake in Celltrion Inc., a listed biopharmaceutical company, KT&G said. Shares of KT&G were trading at 67,600 won on the Seoul bourse as of 1:40 p.m., up 0.6 percent.