Alibaba Surges After Revenue Beat Eases Fears of Covid Fallout

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. soared after reporting revenue rose a better-than-expected 9%, reassuring investors trying to come to grips with the economic cost of sweeping lockdowns intended to eradicate Covid-19.

The shares rose more than 12% in Hong Kong after the company reported revenue climbed to 204.05 billion yuan ($30.3 billion) in the March quarter, beating analysts’ projections. On Thursday, Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang emphasized his company would pursue higher-quality expansion, keep a lid on costs and keep expanding its ability to build cloud and digital infrastructure for customers. SoftBank Group Corp., Alibaba’s biggest shareholder, gained 4.5% in Tokyo.