Hitachi Ltd. said Thursday it returned to profitability in the first half to Sept. 30, posting a net profit of 12.85 billion yen, reversing a 110.54 billion yen loss in the same period a year earlier.

The electronics giant said streamlining measures helped cut fixed costs by 19 billion yen during the six-month period. Group sales remained almost flat at 3.92 trillion yen.

Operating profit during the period came to 45.88 billion yen, according to the firm's consolidated earnings report, against an operating loss of 98.54 billion yen the previous year.

Sales from all segments except financial services and the digital media and consumer products division remained practically unchanged or even dropped from a year earlier. The digital media segment was boosted by brisk sales of optical storage products and plasma TVs.

Among the hardest hit was the power and industrial division, battered by a decline in demand for maintenance services for nuclear and thermal power plants. Operating profits for this segment fell by 58 percent to 11.11 billion yen.

The semiconductor business remained in the red, racking up a 14.4 billion yen operating loss during the period.

Hitachi also cut its group sales forecast for the full business year to 8.05 trillion yen, down 50 billion yen from initial estimates but up 1 percent from the previous year.

The firm's profit target is now 36 billion yen, down from 60 billion yen but well up from a net loss of 483.84 billion yen the previous year. Hitachi has promised to return to the black this year.