Shares of ZTE jump more than 5 percent after strong H1 earnings

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Shares of Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE Corp jumped more than 5 percent on Thursday morning after the company posted a record first-half net profit thanks to improving margins and revenue from new contracts to build China's next-generation telecom network.

The Shenzhen-based company's first-half net profit rose 263 percent year-on-year to 1.13 billion yuan (111 million), up from 310 million yuan a year earlier.

Shares in the company rose as much as 5 percent on Thursday morning, outperforming a 0.2 percent fall in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.

(Reporting By Yimou Lee; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)