Fiat boosted trading profit almost four-fold in the first quarter

Shares in the company, which now holds fifth place in Europe's car market with France's Renault after a massive restructuring, closed up 1.51 per cent at 20.79 Euros, outperforming a broadly flat DJ Stoxx European autos index.

CEO Sergio Marchionne told analysts that he did not think its plans to buy back 1.4 billion Euros of shares would affect the view of debt ratings agencies.

Fiat's trading profit or operating profit before special items, at the auto unit was 192 million Euros, from 57 million a year ago, beating the average expectations of nine analysts in a Reuters poll of 131.67 million. Fiat said there was a one-off gain of about 40 million Euros.

Fiat Group net profit was 376 million Euros, up from 151 million a year ago, on sales up 8.9 per cent to 13.676 billion Euros. Nine analysts in a Reuters poll had expected a group net profit of 483.56 million Euros and sales of 13.392 billion.