Toyota shares rise on record profit report

Shares in Japanese auto giant Toyota advanced in Tokyo morning trade on Friday following a report it is set to book a record operating profit in the six-month period to September.

Toyota's shares rose 1.40 percent to 6,130.0 yen ($57) by the morning break in Tokyo.

The world's biggest automaker was likely to see its operating profit rise four percent to about 1.3 trillion yen ($12 billion) between April and September, the leading Japanese business daily Nikkei reported.

The story attributed the rise to brisk sales in North America and elsewhere, helped by a weaker yen which makes Japanese exporters more competitive overseas and inflates their repatriated profits.

Toyota may revise up its net profit forecast for the full year to March, the Nikkei added.

In August, the company said it was on course to deliver a net profit of 1.78 trillion yen in the current fiscal year.

However, Toyota trimmed its calendar year global sales target to 10.22 million vehicles, from an earlier estimate of 10.33 million, as demand across Asia slipped.

Japanese car companies, including Toyota rivals Nissan and Honda, have been big winners over the past year as a sharp drop in the yen inflated their profits, while sales accelerated in key markets including the US and China.

The Nikkei also said Friday that Toyota has sold some of its shares in US electric car manufacturer Tesla.

That followed Tesla's earlier announcement it will stop supplying Toyota with lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles by the year-end.

Toyota however plans to continue to work with Tesla in such areas as technology for plug-in hybrid vehicles, the Nikkei report said.

Toyota announces its latest earnings on November 5.

kh-pb/lto