Sony climbs as games outlook makes up for earthquake damage

Sony Corp. shares rose as investors ignored a weak profit forecast, looking instead to the company's long-term prospects in entertainment and sensors needed for driverless cars and other emerging products. In New York, shares rose even after the company issued an annual profit outlook that fell short of analysts' estimates due to costs for repairs after the Kyushu earthquakes. The impact of the quakes and a slowdown in demand for image sensors that power cameras in smartphones -- including Apple Inc.'s iPhone -- are testing Sony's ability to generate more of its earnings from PlayStation gaming consoles, streaming services for its 65 million online users as well as movies and music. Still, profit at Sony's games and network services business will rise 52 percent to 135 billion ( 1.2 billion) on anticipated sales of PS4 consoles this year. "All the bad news is probably out for the time being, and we expect the focus to shift to the pace of recovery" in image sensor operations, Takeo Miyamoto, a Tokyo-based analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities, wrote in a report on Tuesday after the earnings.