By Jiahui Huang

BYD forecast strong first-quarter earnings in a rare early guidance, a move aimed at restoring confidence among investors after U.S. President Trump's reciprocal tariff plan sent China's stock markets tumbling to their worst day since the pandemic.

China's biggest automaker said Tuesday that its quarterly net profit likely rose to between 8.5 billion yuan and 10 billion yuan, equivalent to $1.16 billion-$1.37 billion, up sharply from 4.57 billion yuan a year earlier. That compared with a consensus estimate of 7.72 billion yuan in a Visible Alpha poll of analysts.

It projected earnings per share between 2.91 yuan and 3.42 yuan for the quarter, compared with 1.57 yuan a year earlier.

Analysts said the release of first-quarter guidance at such an early date reflects the company's confidence about its performance but is also meant to bolster market sentiment.

"It's a catalyst to boost market confidence after the steep selloff yesterday," CCB International analyst Qu Ke said, noting that the Chinese electric-vehicle champion's guidance was better than expected.

BYD attributed the robust expected earnings growth to the continued expansion of its economies of scale and strategically integrated vertical operations.

"As an industry leader, the company achieved record NEV sales for the first quarter, surpassing previous historical highs," BYD said. New-energy vehicles, or NEVs, is a term China uses to refer to fully electric cars and plug-in hybrids.

The EV maker said it also recorded substantial sales growth in overseas markets.

BYD last week said it sold 1.0 million vehicles in the first quarter, up 60% from a year ago. It sold 416,388 battery EVs, beating Tesla to remain the world's top EV seller for the quarter.

BYD's Hong Kong-listed shares, which rebounded as much as 7.8% on Tuesday, pared gains to about 4% in afternoon trading following the guidance's release. The stock remains more than 20% higher this year despite Monday's 16% slump.

The company's Shenzhen-listed shares were recently 1.1% higher.

Write to Jiahui Huang at jiahui.huang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 08, 2025 02:30 ET (06:30 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.