Shares of BYD jump after Chinese EV maker posts 200% surge in first half profit

Shares of Chinese automaker BYD listed in China jump more than 5% Tuesday, a day after posting a stellar jump in first half profit.

Thanks to record deliveries, the Chinese electric car maker on Monday posted a 204.68% jump in net profit for the first half of the year — that’s net earnings of 10.95 billion yuan ($1.50 billion) in the January to June period, compared to 3.59 billion yuan a year earlier.

Hong-Kong listed shares of the automaker rose 5.6% while stocks in Shenzhen were up as much as 4.75% on Tuesday.

The strong numbers were mainly attributable to rapid growth in the new energy vehicle business, the firm said in a stock filing.

Revenue in the first six months increased 72.72%, compared to the first half of 2022, according to the stock filing.

“If you look at BYD numbers, clearly the top line growth has been very strong, but we are even more impressed by its margins. BYD’s gross margin in the first half was 18%. That’s Tesla’s gross margin,” according to Jiong Shao, Barclays’ China technology analyst.

China’s top-selling car brand posted its best-ever quarterly sales results. Sales of passenger new energy vehicles in the second quarter were 700,244 units, up about 98% year-on-year, according to the company.

In comparison, U.S. rival Tesla reported deliveries of 466,140 vehicles globally for the second quarter.

China is the largest auto market in the world by sales and production. It is also the largest EV market in the world, and a key driver in the push toward electric cars.

“BYD is targeting mass market where Tesla cannot reach,” said Vivek Vaidya, associate partner at Frost & Sullivan, on CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” Tuesday.

“You will see China-made vehicles which will offer significant price advantage over Tesla [with] similar features, stunning looking cars,” said…