Here’s what Apple supplier shares are doing after the iPhone 7 launch
Across Asia, shares of Apple suppliers were broadly mixed in the wake of the iPhone 7 and Apple Watch Series 2 launches, confounding analysts' predictions of likely beneficiaries.
Analysts said the new features for the iPhone were broadly in line with expectations, given previous leaks to the media.
The Cupertino, California-based company announced a new line-up that was in line with expectations, including a 32GB iPhone 7 with EarPods for $649, and a new AppleWatch Series. The new iPhone also has longer battery life, and a massively upgraded dual-lens camera. The EarPods connect to the new iPhone via a wire through the phone's Lightning jack, but Apple also introduced new wireless earphones called AirPods, that can be bought separately for $159 from October.
In a note earlier this week, analysts at Citigroup said prior to the launch that they estimated the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus build for the third quarter at a total 18 million units and around 71 million for the fourth quarter.
In the note prior to the launch, Citigroup said it expected Hon Hai would assemble 52 million iPhone 7s, Pegatron 22 million and Wistron 3 million. Shares of the three companies were down around 1 percent each at 12:08 p.m. HK/SIN.
Nomura said in a note dated Thursday that it expected the new jet black casing color would slightly benefit Hon Hai, as it would be more difficult to produce.
The bank expected Taiwan-listed Catcher would be a major supplier for casings to Pegatron and Wistron; Catcher's shares jumped 2.80 percent by 12:10 p.m. HK/SIN.
But Citigroup said in a note dated Thursday that the new ceramic material in the Apple Watch could bode ill for Catcher as Apple moves away from metal casings.
That Citigroup note also said that the additional iPhone colors could require different laser applications, which could benefit China-listed Han's Laser, but those shares were down 0.8 percent at 12:13 p.m. HK/SIN.
When it comes to the upgraded dual-lens camera, Nomura expected Taiwan-listed Largan and Seoul-listed LG Innotek would be key beneficiaries, while Citigroup pointed to Japan-based Alps and Hong Kong-listed Cowell as well as Largan as likely beneficiaries.
Alps was down 2.40 percent, Cowell was off 2.90 percent, Largan fell 0.5 percent and LG Innotek was off 2.31 percent as of 12:19 p.m. HK/SIN.
The reinvented speaker design on the iPhone 7 would likely benefit China-listed Goertek and Hong Kong-listed AAC Tech, Citigroup said. Nomura also expected Taiwan-listed Merry to benefit from acoustic performance upgrades.
AAC was up 2.92 percent, Goertek was down 1.01 percent and Merry was flat at 12:22 p.m. HK/SIN.
When it comes to the chips, Citigroup expected SK Hynix, Toshiba and Samsung would supply NAND, while TSMC would see wafer sales growth.
NAND is a memory-storage type that doesn't need power to retain data.
Seoul-listed SK Hynix was up 1.72 percent, Tokyo-listed Toshiba was down 1.66 percent and South Korea's Samsung Electronics, which is both an Apple supplier and competitor, was up 0.31 percent at 12:26 p.m.
Suppliers in the display segment were broadly mixed. Citigroup noted that there weren't major changes to displays, likely leading to a smooth ramp up for the segment, but it kept a negative view on Japan Display and Sharp on expectations that the iPhone launched next year will adopt a different material for displays.
Japan Display shares jumped 2.68 percent in Tokyo trade and Sharp was down 0.71 percent by 12:29 p.m. Another supplier, Seoul-listed LG Display, dropped 4.07 percent.
—Anita Balakrishnan contributed to this article.
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—By CNBC.Com's Leslie Shaffer; Follow her on Twitter @LeslieShaffer1