Nissan first half profit slumps

Japanese automaker Nissan on Thursday logged a 10.9 per cent drop in net profit for the six months to September owing to a decline in global sales and rising materials costs.

The results come as Nissan struggles to recover trust after an inspection scandal last year, while it suffered a new blow when it acknowledged in July that data on emissions and fuel economy had been deliberately “altered”.

The firm’s bottom-line profit fell to 246.3 billion yen ($2.2 billion) from 276.5 billion yen registered in the same six-month period last year.