Alibaba shares rise 3% in premarket after Chinese tech giant posts 58% jump in profit

Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba on Friday beat profit expectations in its September quarter, citing an acceleration in growth in its cloud business unit.

Net income came in 43.9 billion Chinese yuan ($6.07 billion), compared with a LSEG outlook of 25.83 billion yuan.

Revenue reached 236.5 billion yuan ($32.72 billion), versus an analyst forecast of 238.9 billion yuan, according to LSEG data.

The company’s New York-listed shares have gained ground this year to date, up almost 17% as of Friday. The stock was up 3% in premarket trading at 11:43 a.m. London time, after the release of the quarterly earnings.

The results come at a tricky time for Chinese commerce businesses, given a tepid retail environment that reflects broader sluggishness in the world’s second-largest economy.

Markets are now watching whether a slew of recent stimulus measures from Beijing, including a five-year 1.4-trillion-yuan package announced last week, will help resuscitate the country’s growth and curtail a long-lived real estate market slump.

The impact on the retail space looks promising so far, with sales rising by a better-than-expected 4.8% year-on-year in October, while China’s recent Singles’ Day shopping holiday — widely seen as a barometer for national consumer sentiment — regained some of its luster.

Alibaba touted “robust growth” in gross merchandise volume — an industry measure of sales over time that does not equate to the company’s revenue — for its Taobao and Tmall Group businesses during the festival, along with a “record number of active buyers.”

“Alibaba’s outlook remains closely aligned with the trajectory of the Chinese economy and evolving regulatory policies,” ING analysts said Thursday, noting that the company’s Friday report will shed light on the Chinese economy’s growth momentum.

 This breaking news story is being updated.