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Wal-Mart quarterly profit rises 12 percent


    (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc reported a 12 percent rise in holiday-quarter profit as shoppers spent more of their savings from lower U.S. gas prices at the company's stores.

    The company reported a 1.5 percent increase in same-store sales in the United States, its second straight quarter of growth after six quarters of flat or declining sales.

    The world's largest retailer also said it would increase wages for about 500,000 full and part-time U.S. employees in the first half of this year.

    Net profit attributable to Wal-Mart rose to $4.97 billion, or $1.53 per share, for the fourth quarter ended Jan. 31, from $4.43 billion, or $1.36 per share, in the same period a year earlier.

    Total revenue rose 1.4 percent to $131.57 billion.

    (Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bengaluru and Nathan Layne in Chicago; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)