November 21^st, 2002 (12:00am) - Japanese videogame maker Nintendo said on Thursday it bought back 2.2 million of its own stock in October, the first such move since shareholders approved a scheme to buy back up to 14 million shares.

The share purchases, worth 25.9 billion yen ($211.1 million), is in part aimed at shoring up the company’s sagging share price, it said.

Shares in cash-rich Nintendo, which were down 3.75 percent at 11,550 yen as of 0537 GMT, have lost nearly 50 percent so far this year, underperforming a 18 percent decline in the Nikkei average.

The stock hit a year low of 10,160 yen -- the lowest in 3-?years -- on October 23, dragged down by concerns over growth prospects at Nintendo, especially after it trimmed its interim earnings forecast earlier that month.

"We have conducted the share buyback after considering various factors including a fall in our stock price," Makoto Wakae, a spokesman at Nintendo, told Reuters.

Nintendo, the world’s second-largest home videogame maker, is holding the repurchased shares as treasury stock, he said.

In June, Nintendo’s shareholders gave the okay for the firm to buy back up to 14 million shares -- nearly 10 percent of its total outstanding shares or 250 billion yen worth.

Wakae declined to say whether the Kyoto-based company was continuing to buy back shares in November or if it planned more buybacks. Nintendo will provide information on its buybacks for this month on December 15, he said.

Some analysts said that although details of how many shares Nintendo plans to buy back in the future are scarce, it is likely the gamemaker will conduct more buybacks and they would support its share price.