Costco Wholesale Corp on Thursday reported a higher-than-expected 10 percent rise in March sales at stores open at least a year, bolstered by an increase in gasoline prices and strong foreign currencies.

Analysts on average were expecting the largest U.S. warehouse club operator's same-store sales to rise 9.3 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Same-store sales at its U.S. locations increased 5 percent, while international sales rose 28 percent.

Excluding the impact of gasoline price increase and strong foreign currencies, comparable sales for March rose 3 percent.

Costco said net sales for the five weeks ended April 4 rose 12 percent to $7.14 billion.

Shares of the company closed at $61.72 Wednesday on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Anuradha Ramanathan in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)