Itochu Corp. said Tuesday its group net profit in the April-September first half rose 130.3 percent over a year earlier to 44.14 billion yen on 4.60 trillion in sales, down 1.5 percent.

Despite the sales drop, the trading firm's group operating profit expanded 88.1 percent to a first-half record of 76.08 billion yen on large gross profit gains, cost savings and a decline in profit transfers to loan-loss reserves, Itochu said.

For the full year to March, Itochu expects to book 75 billion yen in net profit, against the previous year's net loss of 31.94 billion yen. Sales are projected to rise 0.9 percent to 9.6 trillion yen.