TOKYO (Dow Jones) - Nintendo Co. (7974.OK) Thursday reported strong earnings results for the fiscal year ended March 31, thanks to strong sales of its newly launched portable game player Nintendo DS and to foreign exchange-related gains caused by a weaker yen.

The Kyoto-based video game console maker said its group net profit more than doubled to Y87.42 billion from Y33.19 billion a year ago.

Group sales rose a marginal 0.1% to Y515.29 billion from Y514.81 billion, while operating profit grew 3.6% to Y111.52 billion, Nintendo said.

The results are based on Japanese accounting standards. Results for the January-March quarter weren't available.

Nintendo, the creator of popular game characters such as "Super Mario", said it posted Y21.85 billion in foreign-exchange-related gains for last fiscal year, a sharp reversal from the Y67.88 billion foreign-exchange-related losses it booked a year ago.

Nintendo keeps a lot of its foreign earnings in foreign markets, particularly in dollar-denominated cash deposits, as doing so can generate larger interest revenue than in Japan where interest rates remain very low. As such, its earnings tend to fluctuate depending on the level of the foreign exchange rates at the end of each book-closing period.

Nintendo's mainline operations were supported by the successful launch of the Nintendo DS. Since the product was launched in the U.S. and Japan late last year and in March in Europe, Nintendo has registered sales of 5.27 million units, it said.

The product has liquid crystal display screens that enable users to control the movements of game characters by touching the screen with a stylus or with their fingertips.

The instant success of the handheld Nintendo DS helped offset the slumping sales of Nintendo GameCube game consoles.

As already announced, Nintendo sharply raised its annual dividends for the just-ended fiscal year to Y270 from Y140 paid in the previous fiscal year.

For this fiscal year through March 2006, Nintendo forecasts a group net profit of Y75 billion on sales of Y520 billion. The earnings outlook is based on an assumption that the dollar will average at Y107 and the euro at Y135.

-By Natsuo Nishio, Dow Jones Newswires; 813-5255-2929; natsuo.nishiodowjones.com

-Edited by Chris Gallagher Dow Jones Newswires 05-26-05 0513ET Copyright (C) 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.