Borsa da record per la mamma

Shares of Nintendo Co. surged to a record as JPMorgan Securities Japan Co. started coverage of the company with an ''overweight'' rating on its earnings prospects from the Wii game console.

The stock climbed 3.2 percent to 37,450 yen at the close on the Osaka Securities Exchange, the highest since the Kyoto-based company was listed in January 1962.

``The stock's rally reflects investors' positive sentiment about Nintendo's earnings,'' said Junichi Misawa, who oversees $655 million at STB Asset Management Co. in Tokyo. ``The yen's exchange rate has a big impact on the company's net income,'' contributing to the share gains, he said.

Nintendo this month raised its annual earnings estimate for the fourth time for the fiscal year, helped by sales of the DS portable player and the Wii console, whose sales outpace Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 machine by two to one in Japan and the U.S. JPMorgan analysts Eiji Maeda and Yuko Sekine cited ``strong'' sales of the DS and Wii for the rating, its highest ranking.

``We expect operating profit growth to remain strong over the medium term'' on the continued success of the DS and Wii players, the analysts wrote in a report dated April 13. The analysts forecast Nintendo's shares to rise 15 percent from the current price to 42,500 yen by April 2008.

Shares of Nintendo more than doubled in the past year, outperforming a 17 percent gain in Sony's stock.

Higher Revenue

Sales climbed 90 percent to 966 billion yen ($8.1 billion) for the year ended March 31, Nintendo said in a preliminary earnings statement on April 5. In January, the company forecast 900 billion yen in sales, of which 70 percent comes from overseas.

Net income beat earlier forecasts after a greater-than- expected decline in the yen against the euro and dollar boosted earnings by about 20 billion yen, Nintendo said, without specifying a figure.

The euro rose to a record 161.63 yen after the Group of Seven industrial nations stopped short of saying following a meeting on April 13 that the Japanese currency is too weak.

Nintendo has sold 2.04 million Wii units in Japan since its debut on Dec. 2 last year, Tokyo-based Enterbrain Inc. said last week. Sony has sold about 812,000 of the PlayStation 3 since Nov. 11, the researcher said April 2.

An ``overweight'' rating means JPMorgan expects the stock to outperform the average return of shares under its coverage over the next six to 12 months.
The broader Topix index gained 1.2 percent after the yen fell to a record low against the euro, boosting the value of exports to Europe.


In parole povere Nintendo spacca i muli ed ha fatto registrare il record di valore per le sue azioni. Ricordiamo che Nintendo è in borsa dal 1962 e nonostante ci sia gente che crede ancora che Nintendo stia fallendo a causa del virtual boy, non è mai stata più in salute come questi ultimi due anni di successi come il DS e il Wii recentemente stanno dimostrando.