This is the first time Mitsubishi Motors has released consolidated interim results. It posted a group net profit of 5.67 billion yen for the past year to March 31, but remained in the black only by selling assets such as land once occupied by a shuttered factory.

Mitsubishi Motors, burdened with group debt of 1.75 trillion yen, was the only one of Japan's top five automakers to post a consolidated operating loss for the April-September half, as the stronger yen and sagging auto sales overwhelmed its cost-cutting effors.

The automaker forecast a net loss of 17 billion yen for the year ending next March.

"With hightened sales competition from the entry of new models from other automakers, the market environment will be even more severe (this business year)," Mitsubishi Motors said,adding it would again not pay an interim dividend.

Mitsubishi Motors said the yen's surge in value - it averaged 114 to the dollar during the first half, up from 134 yen a year earlier - slashed parent-only operating profit by 29 billion yen.

Sluggish sales reduced profit by 18 billion yen, it added.

Group sales totalled 1.57 trillion yen, as production fell 8.5 percent from a year-earlier to 467,142 vehicles. Domestic sales rose 1.1 percent to 270,574, but exports plunged 23.3 percent to 201,147.

A strong yen makes Japanese exporters less price competitive in the global market while cutting yen-based export income.

Mitsubishi Motors' shares fell 12 yen or 2.2 percent to 528 on Thursday. Its share price has climbed from a low around 200 yen last October to as high as 680 yen on July 4.

Mitsubishi Motors' results round out the interim results for Japan's five-largest automakers, highlighting its comparatively weak product line-up.Other automakers also victim of high yen Market leader Toyota MotorCorp posted a 10 percent decline in group interim operating profit to 362 billion yen.

Nissan Motor Co, the nation's second-largest automaker, reported cost-cutting efforts helped first-half operating profit rise to 58.5 billion yen from 25.9 billion yen a year earlier. Yet Nissan forecast a 590 billion yen consolidated net loss for the full year, reflecting huge writeoffs and restructuring costs aimed at ending years of red ink.

Operating profit at Honda Motor Co, the third-largest carmaker, slid 23 percent in the first half. But pointing to strong sales in the booming US car market, it kept its prediction of a group net profit of 250 billion yen for the full year.

Mazda Motor Corp, particularly vulnerable to the yen as it exports more than two-thirds of the vehicles it produces in Japan, saw its group operating income fall to 8.4 billion yen. Yet it too kept its full-year forecast for a 40 billion yen profit, reflecting intensive cost-cutting efforts.

"The effect of the strong yen made it difficultto gauge the state of business at top automakers," said Chikao Masuzawa, an ING Barings analyst, adding that the auto sector as a whole showed a lacklustre performance.The sector's subindex is up 17 percent this year against a 36 percent jump in the market's benchmark Nikkei 225 average.