YOKOHAMA (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co reported a slight increase in second-quarter profit on Tuesday, beating analyst estimates, as record sales in the United States dulled the impact of a slowdown in China.
Japan's No. 2 automaker said operating profit reached 139.34 billion yen ($1.20 billion) in July-September, compared with the 130.67 billion yen average estimate of 12 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The year-earlier figure was 135.94 billion yen.
Sales fell in each month in the quarter in China, the world's biggest auto market, where a slowing economy and lingering anti-Japanese sentiment is leading to fewer passenger cars and commercial vehicles leaving showrooms.
Weakness in China and other emerging markets led Nissan to lower its global sales forecast by 200,000 vehicles, the automaker said on Tuesday.
"China's general market slowdown, particularly in the LCV (light commercial vehicle) segment hit the company," an executive said at an earnings briefing.
In contrast, generous incentives in the United States helped Nissan to record second-quarter sales. That was followed by automakers reporting their strongest October sales in a decade thanks to increased consumer spending and lower gasoline prices.
Nissan also said robust sales in North America - its biggest market - helped offset weak demand in Japan where the consumer tax was raised in April, as well as uncertainty in Russia.
Nissan has been hit by a sharp decline in the Russian rouble against European currencies since the onset of the Ukraine crisis, because most of the cars it sells in Russia - its fifth-largest market - are manufactured in Britain and Continental Europe.
The July-September result was marginally pushed up by an 8 percent decline in the yen against the U.S. dollar. Among Japan's top five automakers, Nissan benefits the least from a weaker yen - which raises the value of repatriated earnings - because it has a greater proportion of overseas production.
The currency has since passed 113 yen for the first time since December 2007 after Japan's central bank expanded its economic stimulus measures.
On Tuesday, Nissan said it now expects the dollar to average 104 yen in the business year ending March rather than 100 yen previously forecast. It also expects the euro to average 138 yen instead of 140 yen.
Shares in Nissan ended up 3 percent ahead of the earnings announcement, compared with a 2.7 percent rise on Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei average.
The stock has outperformed rivals such as Honda Motor Co Ltd and Toyota Motor Corp so far this year. Toyota reports second-quarter earnings on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Mari Saito; Editing by Christopher Cushing)