12:12 PM EST - Alcan Inc. : returned to profit in its fourth quarter on higher aluminum prices and by avoiding charges of the sort that caused a loss in the year earlier period. The world's second-largest maker of primary aluminum, said it earned $422 million, or $1.13 a share in the quarter. That compared with a loss of $361 million, or 98 cents a share. Operating earnings were $406 million or $1.09 a share in the quarter, compared with $205 million or 54 cents a year earlier. Alcan Inc.
shares T.AL are trading up 41 cents at $60.35.
