May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Nintendo Co., maker of the world’s most popular video-game console, forecast annual profit will rise 7.5 percent, helped by a weaker yen.

Net income will probably increase to 300 billion yen ($3 billion) in the year ending March, 31, 2010, from 279.1 billion yen a year earlier, the Kyoto, Japan-based company said today. That’s less than the 340 billion yen median of 18 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Overseas sales of the Wii console are helping to counter slowing purchases in Nintendo’s home market. The company forecast the yen will average 100 per dollar and 130 per euro this business year. The yen jumped 29 percent against the euro and 23 percent against the dollar in 2008, reducing the value of exports in local currency terms.

Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, will probably fall 12 percent to 490 billion yen. Sales may decline 2.1 percent to 1.8 trillion yen, the company said.

Analysts projected operating income of 536.9 billion yen on sales of 1.76 trillion yen.

Nintendo rose 1.4 percent to 27,000 yen as of 2:11 p.m. on the Osaka Securities Exchange, paring a gain of as much as 5.1 percent before the earnings announcement. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 4.2 percent.

To contact the reporters on this story: Hiroshi Suzuki in Tokyo at Hsuzuki5@bloomberg.net; Mariko Yasu in Tokyo at myasu@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 7, 2009 01:17 EDT