U.S. auto sales plunge but bottom seen near

"Share prices are looking for a new direction, so they reacted positively to the U.S. sales results," UBS Securities analyst Tatsuo Yoshida said, although he said the year-on-year decline was still staggering and the annualized sales rate extremely low.

Toyota rose 5.8 percent, Honda gained 8.9 percent and Nissan put on 9.6 percent in Thursday morning trade in Tokyo.

DISCOUNTS HIT RECORD

Discounts in the United States hit a record in March, averaging $3,169 per vehicle based on the value of offers including rebates and zero-percent financing, auto website Edmunds.com said.

Both GM and Ford began rolling out new sales programs intended to win over car shoppers worried about losing their jobs by promising to cover loan payments if that happens.

Meanwhile, GM financing affiliate GMAC Financial Services said it would lower financing costs for dealers and resume making loans to subprime borrowers.

GMAC said the moves are expected to make at least $5 billion of credit available to customers over the next 60 days as GM races to restructure.

In Washington, Chrysler LLC Chief Executive Bob Nardelli and Fiat SpA Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne met behind closed doors with members of the U.S. autos task force led by former investment banker Steve Rattner, according to people with knowledge of the meeting.

The task force has given Chrysler until the end of April to complete a tie-up with Fiat and warned that it would cut off federal funding if it fails to do so.

At the same time, the task force waded into the complex deal between GM and its former parts subsidiary Delphi Corp, asking a federal bankruptcy judge to block GM from extending $150 million to Delphi. [nN01499836]