Although TCL Corp suffered a sharp decline in sales in almost all sectors last month due to slowing demand amid a global economic downturn, one bright spark in the otherwise dismal market was in sales of LCD televisions, the firm told the Shenzhen Stock Exchange yesterday.

''Sales of AV (audio & video) products almost halved on a yearly base,'' the electronics maker said. ''Sales of handsets fell 14.8 percent from a year ago while home appliances including air-conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines declined an average of 24 percent.''

But the Shenzhen-based firm said ''sales of LCD televisions almost tripled to 470,936 units. For the first 11 months, sales of LCD TVs soared 239 percent to 3.6 million units.''

Wang Yifei, a TCL Corp's spokesman, blamed the sales decline on ''the shrinking demand amid the financial crisis. It is hard to predict when the market will recover.''

TCL signed a strategic agreement with Intel Inc on Tuesday to develop the next generation TV combining television and the Internet.

TCL rose 2.09 percent to 2.93 yuan yesterday, while the Shenzhen Composite Index advanced 2.32 percent.

(Shanghai Daily December 11, 2008)