Nov 8 (Reuters) - Canada's Manulife Financial reported a rise in its third-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by strong insurance sales in its biggest market Asia.

The insurer posted core earnings of C$1.74 billion ($1.26 billion), or 92 Canadian cents per share, in the three months ended Sept. 30, up from C$1.34 billion, or 68 Canadian cents per share, a year earlier.

Manulife said its business in Asia was driven by demand from mainland Chinese visitors following the reopening of Hong Kong border this year.

Asia is the biggest sales contributor, given Manulife's presence in 12 markets that includes over 100,000 agents and over 100 bank partnerships.

Core earnings in Asia rose 33%, while they rose 4% in Canada.

($1 = 1.3790 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru and Nivedita Balu in Toronto; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar, Shounak Dasgupta and David Gregorio)