By Chang-Ran Kim

TOKYO, JAPAN (Reuters) - Mazda Motor Corp, Japan's fifth-largest automaker, on Thursday lifted its full-year guidance to call for a slightly smaller operating loss, citing better sales and currency rates than it had anticipated.

Mazda, held 13 percent by Ford Motor Co, had revised its first-half estimates earlier this month when it announced a share sale of about US$1 billion (S$1.4 billion), but had left its forecast for the October-March second half unchanged.

Mazda now expects an operating loss of 12 billion yen (S$200 million) for the year to March, 1 billion yen less than what it had announced in early October. It sees a smaller net loss of 17 billion yen, instead of 26 billion yen, on tax-related adjustments.

For the July-September second quarter, operating profit plunged 82 percent to 5.93 billion yen, but beat an estimate of a 4.5 billion yen loss in a poll of four analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net profit was 707 million yen, against a 14.5 billion yen profit last year, as revenue plunged 30 percent to 562.1 billion yen.

Mazda, like the rest of the industry, is slashing fixed costs and boosting manufacturing efficiencies to cut losses from its underused factories.

The maker of the Mazda3 compact car is aiming to be profitable at a factory utilisation rate of 80 percent in Japan at current exchange rates, even as it exports the bulk of its cars sold globally from Japan.

The dollar was trading around 90 yen on Thursday.

Mazda is raising up to 93.9 billion yen in a share sale to invest in new technologies including hybrid systems. Executives have said the company is in the process of studying whether to seek technological tie-ups - not necessarily with top shareholder Ford - or to go it alone.

MITSUBISHI MOTORS KEEPS FORECAST

Domestic rival Mitsubishi Motors Corp booked a second-quarter operating loss of 3.43 billion billion yen, swinging from a profit of 15.29 billion yen a year earlier but roughly in line with its plans.

Its net loss was 9.97 billion yen, against a 2.47 billion yen profit last year.

Mitsubishi Motors left its full-year forecasts unchanged, calling for an operating profit of 30 billion yen and net profit of 5 billion yen. Five analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S expect an average operating profit of 24.7 billion yen.

The maker of the Pajero SUV kept its forecast for total global retail sales unchanged at 932,000 vehicles, with better-than-anticipated sales in China and Taiwan making up for a shortfall everywhere else.

Shares of Mazda and Mitsubishi Motors both fell about 18 percent during the three months to Sept. 30, underperforming Tokyo's transport sector subindex, which was flat.

After announcing its results, Mitsubishi Motors shares ended down 2.2 percent at 134 yen. Mazda ended flat at 209 yen before its results, while the transport sector lost 1.6 percent.