Nissan shares fell more than 11% in Tokyo trading on Friday after the company said the previous day it expected to sell fewer cars in the current financial year than it had previously. Nissan shares fell also as there were worries about its business in China. Nissan’s 11% fall of its shares on course for the biggest one-day drop since September 2001 and lost the stock around $1.8 billion in market value.
Nissan’s sales forecast
Nissan said on Thursday after market close that it lowered its global sales forecast to 3.55 million units for the fiscal year ending March, down from its previous projection of 3.70 million units. Citing logistics disruptions and intensifying competition, the automaker projected a sales-volume decline in all major markets.
Nissan Q3 results
Nissan Q3 results suggested net profit dropped 42% from a year earlier to Y29.14 billion ($195.2 million). That fell short of the estimate of Y76.14 billion in a poll of analysts by data provider Quick.
Smaller gains from affiliates and lower foreign-exchange gains weighed on the bottom line, while revenue rose 9.5% from a year earlier to Y3.108 trillion.
Nissan earnings
The Japanese automaker maintained its annual outlook on Thursday as it expected a more profitable product mix to offset a downwardly revised retail sales outlook for the current financial year of 3.55 million vehicles, down from 3.7 million.
“Especially given what’s happening in China, we have revised our full-year forecast,” Nissan CFO Stephen Ma told a press briefing after the release of the results.
“This reflects challenges including intensifying competition and logistics issues around our key markets.”
Nissan has responded to a 26% fall in nine-month retail sales volumes in China by taking steps to mitigate industry-wide challenges it faces and boost its competitiveness in the world’s biggest car market, Ma said.
The company shifted its tactics to be more focused on cities and regions of China’s car market where electrification is happening at a slower pace, Ma told the briefing.
That helped the company increase unit sales by 19% year-on-year to 247,000 vehicles in the final three months of last year, he added.
“We aim to stay in China and we want to be a relevant player and a sizeable player in China,” Ma said.
Nissan stock update
Nissan share plunged 9.96% to 563.1 yen after its third-quarter operating profit missed analyst estimates.
Nikkei index
Otherwise, Japanese shares rallied on Friday with Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei index breaching the 37,000 mark for the first time in 34 years, supported by overnight gains on Wall Street.
The Nikkei 225 index rose 0.44%, or 163.99 points, to 37,027.27, while the broader Topix index eased 0.08%, or 1.99 points, to 2,560.64.
