Mazda posts $153.3m quarterly profit

TOKYO: Mazda Motor Corp. says it has shaken off a long spell of losses, turning a 12.2 billion yen ($ 153.3 million) profit in the July-September quarter, though it revised downward its sales forecast for the year. The Hiroshima-based automaker’s profit for the quarter compared with a 14.4 billion yen loss a year earlier. Mazda said its net profit for the first half of the fiscal year was 5.7 billion yen ($ 71.6 million). The maker of the Miata sports car and CX-5 crossover sport-utility vehicle exceeded its April forecasts, selling 613,000 vehicles in the first half of the year, about on par with a year earlier.

Strong refining margins boost Total

PARIS: French oil company Total reported a 20 percent rise in third-quarter net adjusted profit to 3.348 billion euros, beating analysts’ expectations thanks to a sharp increase in refining margins. The result from western Europe’s No. 3 oil company followed the pattern laid out by those big global rivals that have already reported; It benefited from a temporary widening between the price of crude and the selling price of its fuels, thanks mainly to refinery closures in the United States and Europe.

MasterCard profit beats estimates

NEW YORK: MasterCard Inc, the No.2 credit and debit card network, reported a quarterly profit that topped Wall Street estimates as more people across the globe opted to use cards instead of cash. Higher consumer spending in the US also helped to boost MasterCard’s third-quarter profit. US consumer spending spiked in the quarter as people felt more confident about their job prospects. Cardholders made $ 676 billion of purchases worldwide in the quarter on a local currency basis, up 12 percent. In the US, purchase volume grew 7.4 percent. though this was below the growth of 13.7 percent in the year-earlier period. MasterCard’s customers, including banks and prepaid card companies across the world, had issued 1.9 billion of the company’s cards as of Sept. 30.