Nissan Motor Co. announced Wednesday a record group operating profit of 737 billion yen for the year through March, up 50.7 percent from the previous year, thanks mainly to increased car sales at home and reduced purchasing costs.

Releasing its latest estimate for fiscal 2002, Nissan said its group pretax profit surged 71 percent from fiscal 2001 to 709 billion yen and net profit rose 33 percent to 495 billion yen.

Group sales are estimated to have reached 6.85 trillion yen, up 10.6 percent, with worldwide car sales of 2.77 million units, up 6.7 percent. Nissan plans to report its final earnings results next month.