Shares in Sony closed down 2 per cent this morning, after Apple Computer announced it was recalling 1.8 million computer batteries manufactured by the Japanese group.

The move is the second significant recall of computer batteries manufactured by Sony in the space of a week.

Dell, the world's largest PC manufacturer, last week said it was recalling 4.1 million batteries after a string of incidents where faulty batteries made laptop computers burst into flames.

Sony said the recall of the lithium-ion batteries would cost it between 20 billion yen and 30 billion yen (£136 million). It also said it expected no further recalls of similar batteries it makes and said it does not expect recalls to spread to batteries made for other consumer electronics devices including mobile phones or digital music players.

The company's shares closed down 2 per cent at 5,000 yen, having fallen as low as 4,940 yen during the trading session.

One Japanese investor this morning raised fears over the impact of the second recall on Sony's reputation. "Sony’s brand image has been tainted. No doubt about it," Mitsushige Akino, a fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management told Reuters.

However there are signs that Sony won't be dumped as a supplier. Dell said after its recall last week that it would continue to buy batteries for its laptop computers from the Japanese company.

Apple said it was recalling batteries sold with its iBook G4 and PowerBook G4 computers from October 2003 to this month.

Last May the group was forced to recall LG-manufactured batteries sold with its 12-inch iBook and PowerBook models.

The latest Apple recall comes after the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, the government safety regulator, last week said it was investigating whether Dell's battery problems affected any other manufacturers.

Apple said it was recalling the batteries after nine batteries overheated. However it said it did not expect any material financial impact from the move.

The recalls, the two largest in the history of the electronics industry, highlight the potential hazards of lithium-ion batteries. The batteries become dangerous where particles in the battery cells come into contact with other parts of the battery cell, creating a short circuit.

Sony said a battery would typically cut out if this occurred. However under certain circumstances it said a short circuit could lead to cells overheating and possibly flames, with the likelihood of this happening affected the configurations of the laptop computer in question.

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