Sound card maker Creative Technology has narrowed its fourth quarter net loss to US$6.5 million from US$18.9 million.

But revenue for the three months to June 30 shrank by 18.3 per cent to US$30.2 million.

This was due to the uncertain and difficult market conditions which continued to affect the sales of products as well as sales across all three geographical regions.

Gross profit margin was 20 per cent compared to 14 per cent in the same period last year, which was hit by write-down of inventories mainly for the personal digital entertainment product category.

Loss per share improved to nine US cents from 27 US cents previously while net asset value per share gained 20 US cents to US$2.32.

For the full year, Creative reported a net profit of US$16.7 million, reversing from a loss of US$84 million last year.

The improvement was due mainly to the one time licensing income of US$20 million reported in the second quarter.

The company proposed a final dividend of 10 cents a share, up from five cents last year.

For the current financial year, Creative expects no major improvement in the difficult and uncertain market conditions.

The overall market for the group's products remains challenging.

For the current quarter, with the expected introduction of new products, the group is targeting an improvement in revenue from the current levels.

Creative expects to report an operating loss for the quarter.