Group net profit jumped 22.1 percent from a year earlier to 27.9 billion yen (258 million dollars), said Sharp, which stayed in the winning group of the nation's competitive electronics sector for April-September.

Sales in the period rose 12.6 percent to 1.1 trillion yen, while interim pretax profit increased 36.3 percent to 52.3 billion yen, the company said.

"All the sales, net profit and pre-tax profit were our highest ever figures in a first half period" mainly on the back of strong sales of LCD products, a company spokesman said.

Revenue from its audio-visual and communications equipment segment rose 13.2 percent to 399.7 billion yen as brisk sales of LCD color television sets and camera-equipped mobile phones offset slumped sales of the conventional products such as VCRs and facsimiles, the company said.

Growing sales of flash memory chips, air purifiers and solar cells also contributed to the sales and profit gains.

For the year to March 2004, Sharp forecast a net profit of 57 billion yen, up from an earlier projection of 50 billion yen, with pretax profit seen at 110 billion yen compared with 100 billion yen and sales at 2.25 trillion yen, up from 2.15 trillion yen.

"Looking ahead, while some uncertainties in currency movement and personal spending are observed in Japan, we see the self-sustained recovery continuing in the corporate sector and thus expect the economy to maintain its positive trend," it said.

"Overseas, global economy will show recovery in general as the US economy continues to improve," Sharp Corp. added.

SPACE.WIRE