Tokyo - Sony Corp on Tuesday reported a net profit fall of 47.4 per cent in the April-June period to 34.98 billion yen (324.78 million dollars) compared with the same period last year.

Sony's net profit decline was attributed mainly to the yen's advance against the US dollar and the lack of blockbuster hit movies in its filmmaking division.

The company's operating profit for the April-June quarter fell 39.5 per cent to 73.44 billion yen, while sales were up 0.1 per cent to 1.98 trillion yen.

The Aditya Birla flagship company, “Grasim Industries” for the first quarter ended June 30, 2008, has reported a flat growth 0.49 percent rise in net profit at Rs 514 crore. In the same period last year, it had 512 crore of net profit. The total income of the company saw a rise of 6.84 percent which came to Rs 2,674 this quarter while during the same period last year it had the total income of Rs 2,593 crore.

The minority shares of the company were marginally down by one percent from Rs 120 crore to Rs 672 crore. On the other hand income increased nine percent to Rs 4,524 crore.

Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), an ONGC group company, has posted a net profit of Rs 845.4 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2008.  

The company has registered a growth of over two-fold from the year-ago period due to inventory gain of Rs 655 crore net of tax on account of increase in average crude oil price from approximately $100 per barrel in March 2008 to $129/bbl in June 2008.

The Company had posted a net profit of Rs 368.55 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2007.

Seoul - South Korea's Samsung Electronics Friday reported a 51-per-cent profit increase for the second quarter of 2008, as sales were boosted by booming mobile phone and flat screen TV business, but stayed below analysts' expectations.

Profits in the months from April to June climbed by 50.6 per cent to 2.14 trillion won (2.11 billion dollars) year-on-year. Profits stayed almost level compared with the previous quarter.

Operating profits rose to 1.89 trillion won from 911 billion year-on-year, but again remained below analysts' predictions. First quarter operating profits were 2.19 trillion won.