Tokyo - Japanese home electronics company Toshiba Corp said Friday it expected an operating loss of 30 billion yen (286.62 million dollars) for the year's first six months through September.

This marks the first time that Toshiba reports an operating loss in five years, the company said.

The company revised downward its full-year operating profit projection to 150 billion yen from an earlier 290 billion yen and sales to 3.55 trillion yen from an initial projection of 3.8 trillion yen due to a sluggish flash memory market, Toshiba said. (dpa)