Isuzu Motors said on Thursday its group net loss for the last business year would be much smaller than it had expected thanks to better sales in Japan and Southeast Asia, Reuters reported.

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The news lifted Isuzu’s shares by three percent by the end of morning trade to 102 yen, outperforming its main rivals and above the key 100-yen mark for the first time in about a week. Earlier, the shares rose as high as 106 yen, Reuters added.

According to the news agency, Isuzu, one of Japan’s weakest truck makers, said it now expected a group net loss of 144.30 billion yen ($US1.24 billion) for the year ended in March, better than the initial forecast of 170 billion yen. A year earlier, it posted a loss of 42.99 billion yen.

Reuters said Isuzu raised its revenue forecast by 6.3% to 1.349 trillion yen, thanks in part to a surge in sales of full-sized trucks in Japan on replacement demand ahead of the introduction of stricter emissions regulations.

Isuzu’s shares have more than doubled this calendar year after ending 2002 at 41 yen, Reuters noted. Like Japan’s other three major truck makers, Isuzu, owned 12% by General Motors, has been hurt by a sharp drop in domestic demand since the nation’s economic bubble burst about a decade ago. But through a new three-year turnaround plan, the truck maker has been trying to return to the black, mainly through increased revenues and sales of assets.

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According to Reuters, Isuzu is especially banking on China for a big sales expansion as truck demand is expected to grow along with that country’s economy and in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.