By Kwanwoo Jun

NCsoft Corp.'s shares rallied Thursday, buoyed by its above-consensus third-quarter net profit and a strong performance of its newly launched multiplayer online role-playing game.

Shares of the South Korean gaming company jumped as much as 30% to 786,000 Korean won ($663.42) in morning trade. The stock was 29% higher at KRW781,000 in early afternoon trade, outperforming the benchmark Kospi index, which was 0.5% lower.

NCsoft reported a net profit of KRW99.50 billion for the third quarter ended September, down 35% from a year earlier but above a FactSet-compiled consensus for a KRW95.84 billion profit.

According to market analysts, investors are betting on much stronger earnings in the fourth quarter and thereafter, as NCsoft's "Lineage W" game has been successfully released in Asia and the Middle East.

Seoul-based EBEST Investment & Securities has raised its forecast for the new game's daily average revenue by 53% to KRW2.34 billion and lifted its 2022 net-profit forecast for NCsoft by 13%.

Investors were also buoyed by NCsoft's disclosure of its plan to launch a game using non-fungible tokens in 2022, analysts said.

Write to Kwanwoo Jun at kwanwoo.jun@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-11-21 0018ET