U.S. auto sales plunge but bottom seen near

GM's shares closed almost unchanged at $1.93 but have lost almost half their value this week on rising chances of a bankruptcy filing that could wipe out existing shareholders.

GM's 8.375 percent bond due in 2033 fell almost 2 cents to just about 11 cents on the dollar, MarketAxess said.

SIGNS OF RECOVERY?

Elsewhere, car markets in Europe showed tentative signs of recovery, helped in part by government tax incentives encouraging cash-strapped consumers to ditch old cars for new and more fuel-efficient models.

Sales rose strongly in France and Italy and the rate of decline slowed in Spain.

In Germany, officials said more than 860,000 car owners had signed up for a new-for-old "scrappage" bonus.

The success of that program has become the model for a bill under consideration in the U.S. Congress that won backing this week from President Barack Obama.

In Japan, auto sales slumped 25.3 percent in March from a year earlier.

South Korea's five automakers posted an 18.8 percent drop in sales in March, with exports down 19.9 percent. Hyundai's registrations fell 9.8 percent.

(Additional reporting by John Crawley, Walden Siew, John Parry, David Bailey, Marcel Michelson, Jeff Mason, Kevin Krolicki, Soyoung Kim, Anton Doroshev, Chang-Ran Kim; writing by Patrick Fitzgibbons; Editing by Michael Watson)