Nintendo has announced positive growth in first-half profit due to the consistently high demand for the Wii and DS. Operating profit reached ¥252.2b in the first fiscal half, a 9.4 percent improvement over the same period last year.

The encouraging result was expected, though the company has had to cut its annual net profit forecast by nearly 16 percent for the full fiscal year ending March 2009. The firm now predicts a net profit of ¥345b for the fiscal year, a drop from the previous projection of ¥410b.

Shares in Nintendo however have taken a sharp fall of 54 percent since the start of the year, underperforming the Nikkei average fall of 46 percent. As a company which exports around 90 percent of its product, coupled with the strong position of the Yen which is beginning to cripple Japan’s export businesses, a drop was likely.

In America, Nintendo reported sales of 4.6m Wii and 5.2m DS consoles during the first half, up 48 percent and 21 percent respectively from last year’s performance. Worldwide, the company sold 10m Wii units during the first half, another gain of 38 percent from last year’s performance. The DS sales are not climbing as fast, up only 3 percent with Nintendo selling 13.7m units.

Ahead of the results, shares in Nintendo closed up 10.9 percent.