Wal-Mart sales shrink 1.4 per cent; but profit grows

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's No. 1 retailer, reported 1.4 per cent decline in sales in the second quarter of 2009, at its same-store sales, or stores open for at least a year.

The Arkansas-based Fortune 500 company said diluted earnings per share from continuing operations for the second quarter rose to $0.88, at the top of the company's guidance of $0.83 to $0.88.

''The effect of currency exchange rates reduced earnings by approximately $0.04 per share,'' it said in a statement

Net sales for the second quarter were $100.08 billion, a decrease of 1.4 per cent from $101.55 billion in the second quarter last year.

Without the negative impact of currency exchange rates equal to $4.199 billion, net sales for the quarter increased 2.7 per cent to approximately $104.281 billion on a constant currency basis (which assumes currency exchange rates remained the same as the prior year).

Income from continuing operations increased to $3.45 billion from $3.40 billion in the same period last year.