Shares of Mitsubishi Motors surge after big Q1 earnings jump

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

Mitsubishi, the junior partner of Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co, 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% 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% increase on the same period a year earlier. It lifted its full-year operating profit outlook by 26% to 110 billion yen.

($1 = 135.5200 yen)

(Reporting by David Dolan; editing by Uttaresh.V)