Telecoms firm BT posts upbeat Q3 earnings

British telecoms company BT on Friday posted better-than-expected third-quarter results on Friday, aided by strong demand for its Internet services. Underlying profit, or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), rose 2.0 percent to £1.55 billion ($2.46 billion, 1.79 billion euros) in the three months to December, BT said in a statement. That compared with £1.52 billion in the same period of the group's previous financial year, and beat market expectations of £1.526 billion according to analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires. Revenues slid six percent to £4.510 billion, but this was above consensus forecasts of £4.485 billion. Pretax profit meanwhile grew seven percent to £675 million while net profits eased 1.0 percent to £484 million. "We have made progress in a number of areas and delivered solid financial results. These are in line with our expectations for the year, which remain unchanged," said Chief Executive Ian Livingston in the results statement. In reaction to the results, BT's share price surged to the top of the leaderboard on London's FTSE 100 index. Shares jumped 4.14 percent to 258.9 pence on the FTSE, which was 0.52 percent higher at 6,309.60 points in morning deals.