May 11 (Reuters) - Manulife Financial on Wednesday missed estimates for first-quarter core profit, which fell from a year earlier as COVID-19 disrupted new business activities in multiple markets across Asia.

Canada's largest insurer reported core earnings of C$1.5 billion ($1.15 billion), or 77 Canadian cents a share, in the three months ended March 31, compared with C$1.6 billion, or 82 Canadian cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average had expected the company to report earnings of 82 cents a share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Net income attributable to shareholders rose to C$2.97 billion, or 1.50 Canadian cents a share, from C$783 million, or 38 Canadian cents a share, a year earlier.

($1 = 1.2993 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)