* Q2 EBIT rises to DKK 3.66 bln crowns ($707.5 million)
* EBIT beats all forecasts in a Reuters poll
* Company says gained market share in East Europe and Asia
* Shares trade up 5.3 percent
(Adds details; updates share price)
By John Acher and Teis Jensen
COPENHAGEN, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Cost cuts helped Danish brewer Carlsberg beat forecasts for the second quarter, and the group said it gained market share in Eastern Europe and Asia and saw glimmers of a better second half even in Western Europe.
The company slightly trimmed its guidance for full-year 2009 revenues but maintained its earlier view of operating profit despite the global economic downturn hitting beer consumption.
Markets remain challenging, and some were below the company's expectations, but it managed to compensate for that with efficiency programmes, Chief Executive Jorgen Buhl Rasmussen told analysts in a conference call.
Carlsberg -- which has 500 brands in 150 markets around the world -- said it retained its overall market share in northern and western Europe, and said the second quarter brought the first signs of improvement in those mature markets.
"The impact from the northern and western Europe region will become even more evident in the second half of the year," a company statement said.
"Carlsberg gained market share across Asia and Eastern Europe, with particularly strong market share gains in Russia," Rasmussen added.
The world's fourth-largest brewer said earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) rose to nearly 3.66 billion crowns ($707.5 million) in April-June from 3.15 billion last year.
The result beat all estimates in a Reuters poll of analysts whose average forecast had been for a 0.4 percent rise to 3.16 billion crowns and the highest estimate was 3.53 billion.
The result came after rival SABMiller missed consensus forecasts last week flat first-quarter volumes.
Carlsberg shares jumped as much as 5.8 percent to a 10-month high of 390.50 before cooling off slightly to trade up 5.3 percent by 1116 GMT. The stock outperformed a 1.4 percent rise in the Copenhagen bourse's benchmark index.
Carlsberg trimmed its guidance for full-year 2009 net revenues to around 61 billion crowns from an earlier forecast of around 63 billion but kept its operating profit forecast of "at least" 9 billion crowns.
"We are very confident on the 9 billion (crowns) plus guidance," Chief Financial Officer Jorn Jensen said on the conference call.
Cazenove Equities called the results "a very strong set of Q2 results, with the EBIT number 14 percent above consensus."
"This was achieved despite a soft top line, with sales 2 percent below consensus", Cazenove added.
GAINING SHARE IN RUSSIA
Carlsberg beefed up its Russian business when it and Heineken last year bought Scottish & Newcastle, which gave Carlsberg full control of Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH), the owner of Russian brewer Baltika.
Baltika increased its market share to 41.1 percent in the second quarter from 38.2 percent a year earlier, Carlsberg said, but added that the Russian market had been weaker than expected.
"We can continue to gain market share in Russia ... we see this as a continuing trend," Rasmussen said.
Beer volumes fell in most markets in Europe but the Asian business continued to grow, Carlsberg said. In organic terms, the East European market, including the key Russian market, fell by 9 percent in the second quarter.
But organic growth in the Asian beer market was 5 percent in the second quarter and 7 percent in the first half year.
Carlsberg said the Russian market declined by about 9 percent in the first six months of 2009, and it lowered its projection for that key market to a decline of around 5-6 percent from an earlier forecast of a 2 percent drop. ($1=5.173 Danish Crown) (Reporting by Copenhagen newsroom, editing by Will Waterman, Mike Nesbit and Hans Peters)