Shares of Mitsubishi Motors surge after big quarterly earnings jump

TOKYO -- Shares of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. headed for their biggest one-day gain in six years on Thursday, surging more than 13 percent after the automaker's quarterly profit almost tripled and it lifted its full-year forecast.

Mitsubishi, the junior partner of Renault-Nissan Alliance, said results were boosted by a weaker yen.

A senior executive, Hiroshi Nagaoka, also told a briefing on Wednesday that it was seeing improvements in chip constraints thanks to the easing of the COVID-19 lockdowns in China, and forecast a likely recovery in production from July onwards, although shipping constraints remain a problem.

Shares of Mitsubishi surged 13.6 percent to 500 yen in mid-morning trade in Tokyo, on track for their biggest one-day gain since May 2016, according to Refinitiv data.

The automaker said group operating profit for the April-June quarter totalled 30.8 billion yen ($227 million), a 190 percent increase on the same period a year earlier. It lifted its full-year operating profit outlook by 26 percent to 110 billion yen.