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MILAN (Reuters) -- Italian industrial group Fiat shocked investors today with the rate at which its debts are rising as the outlook for 2009 autos demand darkens.

The maker of cars, trucks and tractors posted higher-than-expected third-quarter results and aimed for the low end of its profit target for the current year.

But it was downbeat about the prospects for 2009, and the swelling of its net industrial debt to 3.3 billion euros at the end of September from 510 million euros at the end of June preoccupied investors.

The company predicted a worst-case industrial net debt figure of between 3 billion and 4 billion euros for next year.

Its stock was briefly halted from trade after it fell more than 5 percent. At 10:00 CET, it was off 7.3 percent underperforming the DJ Stoxx sector index, which was down 3.9 percent.

"It is the most extraordinary cash burn," said Berstein analyst Max Warburton.

A morning note from UBS said "(The net industrial debt) is much worse than our below consensus estimate of 1.5 billion euros."

Fiat said use of working capital rose 2.4 billion euros due to lower activity in western Europe, seasonality and higher inventories. Its capital expenditure, aimed at strengthening its product portfolio, reached 1.1 billion euros.

But it said it expected the figure to come down to between 1.5 billion euros to 2 billion euros by the end of 2008 thanks to working capital reversals linked to lower production.

Since Fiat was the first of the European carmakers to report results this week, it gave an idea of what could be expected from the others, some of which report on Thursday too. Daimler, maker of Mercedes-Benz luxury cars and heavy trucks, is widely seen issuing its second straight profit warning later on Thursday. After the market close, Renault comes out with its sales for the quarter.