(Yicai) May 13 -- Shares of JD.Com rose despite the Chinese e-commerce giant reporting its profit more than halved in the first quarter, mainly dragged down by widening losses in its new businesses, especially in the food delivery venture.

JD.Com [HKG: 9618] jumped 6.7 percent to HKD126.30 (USD16.13) a share as of 2 p.m. in Hong Kong today. Its New York-listed stock [NASDAQ: JD] closed 3.1 percent higher at USD31.49 yesterday.

Net profit plunged 53 percent to CNY5.1 billion (USD750.9 million) in the three months ended March 31 from a year earlier, the Beijing-based company said in an earnings report released yesterday. Revenue rose 4.9 percent to CNY315.7 billion (USD45.8 billion), with services income surging 21 percent to CNY70.9 billion (USD10.4 billion), while that from products climbed 1 percent to make up the rest.

New businesses' revenue, which includes JD.Com's international and food delivery businesses, reached CNY6.3 billion, but losses from the segment expanded eight times to CNY10.4 billion, primarily due to investment in JD Food Delivery. In addition, JD.Com was fined CNY635 million (USD93.5 million) by the State Administration for Market Regulation because of compliance failures involving third-party cake vendors and order transfer service providers.

JD.Com spent about USD631 million to buy back around 44.5 million class A ordinary shares, or 22.3 million American depositary shares, in the first quarter and paid about USD1.4 billion in annual cash dividends last month, Chief Financial Officer Ian Shan said at an earnings conference call. "The continuous execution of our shareholder return plan underscores our strong conviction in JD's long-term value creation."

The share repurchase program has USD1.4 billion remaining and will expire in August next year, Shan said. "We are firmly committed to unlocking long-term value for our shareholders," he noted, adding that JD.Com will continue to return value to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.

JD.Com's consolidated profit tumbled 64 percent to CNY3.8 billion.

On March 16, JD.Com launched its European retail platform Joybuy in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Its same-day and next-day delivery services covered more than 30 major European cities and over 40 million people as of the end of last quarter.

JD Retail's profit rose 17 percent to CNY15 billion on revenue climbing 1.8 percent to CNY268.6 billion, lifting its operating margin to 5.6 percent from 4.9 percent.

General merchandise income jumped 15 percent to CNY112.6 billion, a sixth straight quarter of double-digit growth. However, that from electronics and home appliances fell 8.4 percent to CNY132.2 billion against a high base from last year's trade-in subsidy program. Revenue from marketplace marketing rose 19 percent to CNY26.5 billion.

JD Logistics's profit soared nearly seven times to CNY1 billion, while income jumped 29 percent to CNY60.6 billion.

Editor: Martin Kadiev