Sony likely to miss profit target: report

TOKYO: Japan’s Sony Corp is likely to miss its annual profit target due to a stronger yen and weak financial markets, but still post a surge in earnings on brisk sales of electronic goods, a report said Friday. For the financial year which ended in March, the company will report an operating profit of around 380 billion yen ($3.63 billion), up 430 percent from a year ago, the Nikkei business daily said. The figure is about 30 billion yen smaller than Sony’s forecast issued in January, noted the paper, which did not say where it obtained the information. Investors appeared unfazed, with Sony shares gaining 150 yen or 3.14 percent to 4,930 in morning trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as the headline Nikkei-225 index rose 1.8 percent. afp