Nintendo enters top ten of most valuable Japanese companies

Nintendo has become one of the top ten most valuable Japanese companies, alongside household names such as Toyota, Canon and Honda.

Shares of Nintendo have risen to a record JYP 46,350 (EUR 279), valuing the company at JPY 6.57 trillion (EUR 39.5 bn).

The Kyoto-based company now tops rival Sony, which is currently valued at 6.48 trillion (EUR 38.9 bn), according to Bloomberg.

Sales of the Nintendo Wii in Japan were 251,794 in May, according to data from Enterbrain.

The company has sold 17,655,799 units of the DS handheld since launch and 2,734,994 Wii consoles.

North American NPD figures for May revealed that the Wii sold more units than the combined sales of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.

"We thank the high evaluation on us from the market," commented company spokesperson Ken Toyoda. "We want to meet market expectations with expansion of our DS and Wii sales."

For the last financial year Nintendo posted revenues of JPY 966.5 billion (EUR 5.8 bn), and forecast JPY 1.14 trillion (EUR 6.8 bn) this business year.