Smith & Nephew : buoyed by double-digit emerging markets growth

LONDON (Reuters) - Artificial hip and knee maker Smith & Nephew reported a 3 percent rise in underlying revenue growth in the second quarter, in line with its 3-4 percent forecast for the year, helped by 13 percent growth in emerging markets.

Chief Executive Olivier Bohuon said on Thursday the company was seeing good momentum, keeping it on track to deliver on full year revenue and trading margin guidance.

Trading profit for the half year was $493 million, against the $488 million forecast by analysts, according to a company-compiled consensus.

Smith & Nephew, which competes against larger U.S. rivals in the orthopaedic replacement market, is battling to bring new technology on-stream to help it win business, with robotics a key area of innovation.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Keith Weir)