Nintendo may finally be rallying back, as the company's stock rose up to 14,050 yen, the highest close it has had since June 2011. Bloomberg reports the rally in game sales, including Animal Crossing: New Leaf for 3DS, raised the mobile's profile to make it the highest selling console of the month. Rumors that China will be lifting its ban on video games also have analysts optimistic on the company.
The possible addition of Nintendo stocks to the Nikkei comes from the pending merger between the Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges. Both Sony's electronics and financial divisions have already been added to the exchange.
While Wii U hardware sales were not significant enough to be cause for this change of heart, clearly the stellar two day performance of Pikmin 3, also causing an increase in hardware sales, also helped to raise the company's profile. Iwata outlined Wii U's recovery plan in the company's last investor relations meeting, laying out their belief that sales of their premier software titles on Wii U will raise sales of the Wii U hardware itself. With the numbers coming out for Pikmin 3, based on only two days in the market, it was enough for traders to see the opportunity in a comeback, and so they bought in. It's even said that some investors were forced to buy back their shares.
So it seems people in the financial sector were less skeptical of those plans than gamers, even Nintendo fans, themselves. Mizuho in particular has raised their price target from 12,000 to 14,000 yen, meaning they expect that high to hold steady.
There is also raised speculation that Nintendo may want to buy beleaguered video game company Atlus from Index, based both on their increased collaboration in recent years, but also that Nintendo is actually one of Atlus' biggest creditors.
Screenshot of Nintendo stocks performance for the day taken from Google Finance.
Source: Bloomberg
