(Yicai Global) Nov. 19 -- Despite making a third-quarter loss, JD.Com’s stock surged after revenue at the Chinese e-commerce titan jumped by a better-than-expected 25.5 percent.

JD’s Hong Kong-listed stock [HKG: 9618] ended 9.1 percent higher today at HKD352.40 (USD45.24). Its shares in New York [NASDAQ: JD] closed up almost 6 percent at USD88.10 yesterday.

Revenue was CNY218.7 billion (USD133.9 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30, according to the Beijing-based firm’s latest earnings report released yesterday. The market expectation was for CNY215.6 billion. Its net loss was CNY2.8 billion (USD438.5 million), compared with a net profit of CNY7.6 billion in the same period last year.

Chief Financial Officer Sandy Xu said the loss was mainly due to normalized marketing expenses as investments in logistics and new business segments for a long-term strategic positioning increased.

JD’s net service revenue soared 43.3 percent to CNY32.7 billion (USD5.1 billion), while net product income jumped 22.9 percent to CNY186 billion (USD28.9 billion).

The operating loss at JD Logistics, the company’s logistics arm, was CNY736.6 million (USD112.8 million), compared with net operating income of CNY83.5 million a year ago. Operating losses at new businesses almost doubled to CNY2.1 billion.

The company’s annual active customer accounts rose 25 percent to 552.2 million in the period.

“With resilient business operations and core competences in technology and supply chain, JD has built a unique business model, enabling us to have better control across the entire business process,” newly appointed President Xu Lei said.

From the second half of the year there have been quite a lot of challenges from the macro level, Xu said on an earnings conference call. “Weak consumption demand, tight supply chain from the upstream, rising price of raw materials, resurgence of Covid-19 cases, and extreme weather have posed many challenges to the retail industry.”

JD’s core capacities in the supply chain have always helped it to deliver more stable performances in uncertain times, Xu added.

Editor: Futura Costaglione