Hitachi Ltd. announced Tuesday that it posted a group net profit of 1.3 billion yen in the October-December quarter -- in stark contrast to a net loss of 115.8 billion yen a year earlier -- due to reduced costs and solid sales growth.

The consolidated pretax account also showed a profit of 6.8 billion yen on sales of 1.92 trillion yen, up 5 percent from a year earlier, under U.S. accounting standards.

The figures compared with a loss of 157.9 billion yen on sales of 1.83 trillion yen a year earlier.