Sony shares jump almost 10% on improved earnings outlook

[TOKYO] Shares in Sony jumped almost 10 per cent in early trade Thursday after the struggling electronics giant revised earnings outlooks upward.

Sony opened at 3,040.0 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, up 9.79 percent from Wednesday's close, with buying bids overwhelming sell offers.

After the Tokyo market closed on Wednesday Sony announced it now expects to lose 170 billion yen (S$1.9 billion) in its fiscal year to March, down by more than a quarter from an earlier estimate.

It also projected an operating profit of 20 billion yen in a turnaround from a loss of 40 billion yen forecast in October.

A weak yen helped Sony's third-quarter results as net profit more than tripled to an estimated 89 billion yen, while sales grew 6.1 per cent to 2.55 trillion yen.

The company said its smartphone and PlayStation console businesses picked up in the October-December quarter while restructuring costs shrank.

Sony published the estimates Wednesday after earlier saying it would delay its finalised numbers following a cyberattack at its Hollywood film unit - linked to satirical film "The Interview", about an assassination attempt on North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un - compromised "a large amount of data".

On Wednesday, it said that investigating the attack and fixing the problems at Sony Pictures Entertainment would cost at least US$35 million, but added that it would not have a significant impact on earnings.

AFP