O-I stock soars on profit report

1/28/2005

Stock of Owens-Illinois Inc. closed at $23.09 yesterday, up 12 percent at $2.45 a share in New York Stock Exchange trading, a day after the Toledo glass-bottle maker reported 2004 profit of $235.5 million despite taking a charge of $153 million for asbestos liability.

A year ago, O-I, Toledo's second largest corporation, reported a loss for 2003 of nearly $1 billion.Investors traded nearly 6.5 million shares yesterday, four times normal volume.