Photo/Li Zhuo (NBD)

Mar. 6 (NBD) – Stock of Vipshop Holdings Limited ("Vipshop", NYSE: VIPS) rose by 8.99 percent in the pre-market trading session on Thursday, eventually ending the day up 26.98 percent to 16.66 U.S. dollars. 

The share price was largely pushed by the company's announcement of unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2019 on the same day.

For the quarter, total net revenue stood at 4.2 billion U.S. dollars, up 12.4 percent year over year. Gross merchandise volume (GMV) rose by 14 percent to 47.6 billion yuan (6.9 billion U.S. dollars) from 41.8 billion yuan in the prior year period.  

National Business Daily noticed that apparel-related categories contributed to over 70 percent of the online discount retailer's total GMV, as clothing brands were ramping up efforts to monetize their inventories. 

Meanwhile, because of the COVID-19 outbreak, sales of discount items are also showing an upward trend. According to data from consulting firm iResearch, China's flash sale market is estimated to surpass 1.54 trillion yuan in 2019 and the figure is projected to exceed 1.6 trillion yuan in 2021. 

Thriving sales of apparel-related products greatly drove up Vipshop's quarterly profits. According to the fiscal report, net income attributable to the discount retailer's shareholders for the fourth quarter of last year increased by 111.4 percent from the prior year to 209.1 million U.S. dollars.

For the full year of 2019, Vipshop generated 13.4 billion U.S. dollars in net revenue and 577 million U.S. dollars in net income attributable to shareholders, representing a growth rate of 10 percent and 88.7 percent, respectively, from the previous year.

Email: limenglin@nbd.com.cn