Honda's quarterly profit jumps 20 pct on Asian vehicle sales growth, raises annual forecast

Honda says quarterly profit surged nearly 20 percent on strong demand for remodeled cars in Japan and elsewhere in Asia.

Honda Motor Co. reported Tuesday an April-June fiscal first quarter profit of 146.5 billion yen ($1.4 billion), close to what analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast.

It raised its annual profit forecast to 600 billion yen ($5.9 billion) from 595 billion yen ($5.8 billion).

Quarterly sales totaled 2.988 trillion yen ($29.3 billion), up 5 percent from a year earlier.

Honda, which sold 1.06 million vehicles in April-June, expects to sell 4.83 million vehicles for the fiscal year through March 2015.

The Tokyo-based maker of the Fit subcompact, Odyssey minivan and Accord sedan, sold 4.32 million vehicles last fiscal year.