ZURICH, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Booming demand for food and biofuels drove a jump in profit at Syngenta AG (SYNN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's biggest agrochemicals company, beating expectations and prompting it to extend its outlook for rapid growth.
Rising pasta prices in Italy and Russian grain-export quotas underscore the food-sector cost increases that have worried central bankers, dogged profits at firms like Nestle (NESN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research), but boosted returns for agricultural suppliers like Syngenta and U.S. rival Monsanto (MON.N: Quote, Profile, Research).
Swiss-based Syngenta, which makes products to kill weeds and bugs and is one of the world's biggest producers of genetically modified seeds, said on Thursday 2007 net profit rose 75 percent to $1.11 billion, on sales up 15 percent at $9.24 billion.
But its shares fell back after an early spike and were down 5.6 percent to 263.50 Swiss francs by 1244 GMT, dropping faster than the European chemicals sector despite strong figures across the board, pressured by profit taking and concerns over possible economic slowdown, analysts and traders said.
"The market condition itself seems to be the problem," said one trader. "Cash is king, get out of stocks, recession is in, so take profit where you can, that seems to be the name of the game."
Syngenta had on average been expected to post profits of $939 million on sales of $8.95 billion, according to a Reuters poll of 11 analysts.
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