Taiwan's AU Optronics Corp said Wednesday its net profit in the three months to June jumped 54.6 percent over the previous quarter, partly due to strong demand for high-priced items.

The firm, a leading flat-screen manufacturer, said its net profit in the second quarter came in at 11.25 billion Taiwan dollars (348 million US), compared with 7.27 billion Taiwan dollars in the previous three months.

It posted a net loss 6.6 billion Taiwan dollars in the same period last year.

"AUO's second quarter results were generally in line with our guidance set in the Investor Conference on April 22," company chief financial officer Andy Yang said in a statement.

For the first half of 2010, the company reported a of 18.5 billion Taiwan dollars on revenues of 240.15 billion dollars. Its earnings per share for the six-month period was 2.05 Taiwan dollars.

(c) 2010 AFP