Sony Group Corp. on Wednesday lifted its net profit forecast for the year ending March to 920 billion yen ($6.1 billion) from an earlier estimate of 880 billion yen, supported by its strength in its finance business and a weak yen.

Its sales projection for the full year, however, was lowered to 12.3 trillion yen from its November forecast of 12.4 trillion yen, affected by weaker-than-expected performance in the game sector.

In the nine months ended December, net profit fell 9.6 percent from a year earlier to 781.57 billion yen on sales of 9.54 trillion yen, up 20.2 percent.

Its financial business' revenue is expected to reach 1.3 trillion yen for the fiscal year, compared with the earlier estimate of 1.21 trillion yen, thanks to growth in its insurance unit.

==Kyodo

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