Alibaba's Earnings Beat Expectations

Alibaba Group Holding reported fourth-quarter revenue above analysts' expectations on Thursday, helped by strength in the Chinese e-commerce market.

China's top e-commerce firm also announced a two-year share repurchase program of up to $6 billion.

Alibaba's total revenue rose about 60 percent to 38.58 billion yuan ($5.60 billion) in the quarter ended March 31, versus an average forecast of 36 billion yuan according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net income attributable to shareholders rose to 10.65 billion yuan, or 60 cents per share, from 5.37 billion yuan in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue from the firm's core e-commerce business unit increased 47 percent to 31.57 billion yuan, above the previous quarter's 45 percent rise.

($1 = 6.8908 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Cate Cadell and Supantha Mukherjee; Editing by Sam Holmes and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)