Sony has announced a smaller-than-expected first quarter loss, helped by cost cuts.
However, the firm maintained its forecast for a second straight year in the red due to slumping sales.
Like other Japanese high-tech giants, Sony has been badly hurt by the global economic downturn, which has depressed demand for televisions and other electronic gadgets and pushed up the value of the yen.
Sony posted a net loss of 37.1 billion yen ($390 million) for the quarter April- June, reversing a profit of 35.0 billion yen for the same period last year. Markets had expected a bigger loss of about 110 billion yen.
It logged an operating loss of 25.7 billion yen, against a year-earlier profit of 73.4 billion yen, as revenue slid 19.2% to 1.60 trillion yen, hit by depressed demand and a strong yen.
The maker of Bravia televisions, PlayStation game consoles and Cyber-shot cameras maintained its forecast for its first back-to-back annual losses since it was listed on the stock market in 1958.
Sony, which announced in May its first annual loss in 14 years, expects to end the current business year 120 billion yen in the red.
Chief executive Howard Stringer is slashing 16,000 jobs and axing about 10% of the group's manufacturing plants in an effort to return to profit.
The company has had a difficult few years in the face of tough competition from rival products such as Apple's iPod and Nintendo's Wii.
NEC loses $356m in Q1
Fellow electronics giant NEC reported a net loss of 33.8 billion yen ($356 million) in the same period.
The loss compares unfavourably with a profit 483 million yen for the same three months last year.
The company announced an operating loss of 40.0 billion yen, compared with a profit of 4.1 billion yen last year. Revenue fell 22.3% to 778.5 billion yen, a statement said.
NEC left unchanged its forecast to return to the black in the full business year to March, predicting a net profit of 10 billion yen, after a loss of 296.6 billion yen last year. It expects an operating profit of 100 billion yen.
The company has previously announced it is cutting 20,000 jobs worldwide and withdrawing from the personal computer business in North America and Europe amid growing competition from US and Taiwanese rivals.
