With continued global success for the Wii and Nintendo DS, stock of Nintendo has become the second most valuable in the whole of Japan, behind only Toyota, and beating household names such as Mitsubishi, Canon and Honda.
Nintendo shares now have a market value of ¥8.39 trillion ($73.38bn), compared to ¥24 trillion ($209.91bn) for Toyota – the world’s most profitable and valuable car maker. Technically the market value for Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan’s largest bank, is around ¥11 trillion ($96.24bn). However, trading in the company’s shares is currently suspended ahead of a share split.
Nevertheless, Nintendo’s total pushed Canon into third place with market capitalization of ¥8.12 trillion ($71.05bn). Sony Group has not appeared in the top ten of Japanese companies, as organized by stock value, for some months.
Shares in Nintendo have more than quadrupled over the last two years, with shares up 3.1 percent on Tuesday at ¥59,200 ($518.01). Ironically, Nintendo’s achievement comes during the slowest period of hardware sales for the company in Japan for over a year – although demand still appears buoyant elsewhere in the world, and it's possible that the slowdown is due to supply constraint yet again.
