Tokyo - Sharp Corp, Japan's largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, on Thursday reported its second half-year loss in a row because of falling sales of those LCD panels, used for such devices as televisions and computer monitors.

Its net loss for the six months that ended September 30 was 17.7 billion yen (196 million dollars). In the same period a year earlier, Sharp had generated a profit of 28 billion yen.

Sales for the Osaka-based company for the half-year fell 17.5 per cent from a year earlier to 1.29 trillion yen.

Operating profits fell 96.9 per cent to 1.57 billion yen. Operating profits, a company's earnings minus interest payments and taxes, are seen as a measure of its earning power from ongoing operations.

Sharp is being hurt by a strong yen, which is damaging its competitiveness and cutting into its overseas sales by raising the prises of its products abroad.