Hitachi Q2 Slips on Yen Rise, Keeps Forecast

TOKYO, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Hitachi Ltd's quarterly profit slipped 9 percent, hurt by a strong yen and weak demand for its power systems and electronic devices, and kept its earnings forecast.

Japan's biggest industrial electronics firm by revenue said on Tuesday it earned an operating profit of 118.2 billion yen in the three months ended in September, as it hurries to cut costs to weather a frail macroeconomic climate.

Hitachi, whose sprawling empire spans thermal plants, excavators and microwave ovens, kept its earnings forecast for an operating profit at 400 billion yen in the year to March, down 10 percent from the previous year and below the 427 billion yen consensus estimate by 22 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Hitachi has been betting on sales of construction equipment in emerging markets as well as demand for smart grids, cables and other infrastructure-related businesses to help erase weakness in its TVs, chips and displays.

Shares in Hitachi, which has been steadily selling or hiving off struggling operations, have recovered to January levels compared with a 20 percent fall in Tokyo's electrical machinery subindex . (Reporting by Mayumi Negishi; Editing by Joseph Radford)