DETROIT (Reuters) - U.S. auto sales likely rose in May to a close to 10 million unit annualized rate, supported by sales at closing Chrysler dealerships in the past week, Ford Motor Co's F.N chief sales analyst said on Friday.

That result would represent a rise from the roughly 9.3 million sales rate in April, but does not yet reflect a confirmation that the U.S. auto industry sales downturn has begun a recovery, George Pipas said in an interview.

“The circumstances surrounding this month’s sales results are such that the elevation off of this floor that we had been operating under is taking place mostly at Chrysler dealerships,” Pipas said.

Chrysler, which filed for bankruptcy protection on April 30, has been closely watched by investors and government officials to see whether its sales would hold up.

Chrysler is seeking bankruptcy court approval for the sale of most of its assets to a new company led by Italy's Fiat SpA FIA.MI which could come as soon as Friday. Its swift reorganization is seen as almost a dry-run for the possible bankruptcy filing of General Motors Corp GM.N.

GM is widely expected to file for bankruptcy protection on Sunday or Monday to complete a similar sale process.

“We could see volatility, we could see really distressed pricing,” Pipas said. “I think we won’t have a true picture for some time as to what is happening with industry sales.”

Ford expects to report a retail market share increase in May from a year earlier, following the trend in recent months, while total sales will be down year over year along with other automakers, Pipas said.

Pipas said industry sales had run at about the same rate as from January to April for the better part of May. The automaker has not changed its position on expectations that industry sales will begin to pick up in the second half of the year.

“We are in the camp that there is going to be a recovery, but the question as to whether it started in May or whether (May sales) are due to something else will have to be assessed,” Pipas said.

Ford shares rose 19 cents or 3.4 percent to close at $5.75 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

Most other automakers had a relatively constant rate of sales in May, Pipas said.

Chrysler Chief Executive Bob Nardelli told the bankruptcy court on Thursday that the 789 dealerships that Chrysler plans to terminate June 9 had sold 4,000 vehicles at retail and transferred 15,000 to other dealerships through Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for the automaker later said the closing dealerships had accounted for 26,000 vehicles through Thursday, but she could not give a breakdown on where the vehicles went.