Sony shares jump 9% as games strength boosts investor confidence

TOKYO :Sony’s shares jumped 9 per cent in morning trading in Tokyo on Friday after the technology and entertainment conglomerate reported strong results at its games and music divisions.

Sony’s gaming unit reported a 37 per cent jump in quarterly profit and PlayStation 5 sales of 9.4 million units during the year-end shopping season.

“These results reaffirmed PlayStation’s status as the dominant high-performance console gaming ecosystem…,” Bernstein analyst David Dai wrote in a note.

Sony also reported strong software sales, despite a lack of high profile titles, with investors looking to upcoming releases this year to support consumer demand.

“Game margins have plenty of room for upside,” Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal wrote in a note.

Sony, whose President Hiroki Totoki is due to add the CEO position from April, also reported robust profit growth at its music business, helping offset weakness at the pictures unit.

The conglomerate also said on Thursday it would buy back up to 30 million shares for some 50 billion yen.

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