Tesla up 20% after Panasonic posts first quarterly profit at battery business

TOKYO/SAN, FRANCISCO – Tesla Inc.'s stock surged 20 percent on Monday in its largest one-day gain since 2013, fueled by a quarterly profit at Panasonic's battery business with the U.S. carmaker and an investor report predicting its shares would rise more than ten-fold by 2024. Shares of Tesla have rallied by over 30 percent since the car maker run by Chief Executive Elon Musk posted its second consecutive quarterly profit last Wednesday, which was viewed as a milestone for the company competing against established heavyweights including General Motors Co. and BMW. The stock is up over 300 percent since early June, helped by Tesla's better-than-expected financial results and ramped up production at its new car factory in Shanghai. Monday's rise came after Panasonic Corp. reported the first quarterly profit in its U.S. battery business with Tesla, which followed years of production troubles and delays. "We are catching up as Tesla is quickly expanding production," Panasonic Chief Financial Officer Hirokazu Umeda told an earnings briefing, referring to battery cell production. "Higher production volume is helping to push down materials costs and erase losses."