Oct 24 (Reuters) - Shares of Australia's Zip Co Ltd jumped nearly 17% on Tuesday after the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) company returned to profitability earlier than projected in the first quarter of fiscal 2024 as domestic operations improved.

Shares in the company rose as much as 16.7% to A$0.350 by 1140 GMT, marking their biggest intraday percentage increase since Jan. 23. The stock is currently trading at a one-week high.

Zip, Australia's biggest standalone BNPL service provider, said it returned to cash earnings before taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBTDA) profitability in the first quarter of fiscal 2024, ahead of its prior guidance for the first half.

Owing to the strong performance of its domestic and New Zealand businesses and continued strength in the U.S. total transaction volumes, Zip upgraded its forecast with an aim to touch cash EBTDA profitability for FY24 from a prior projection for the second half of fiscal 2024.

"Zip continues to expect to achieve a positive Group cash EBTDA result for 2H24 and following a particularly strong start to the year, Zip now expects to achieve a positive Group cash EBTDA result for FY24," CEO and Managing Director Cynthia Scott said.

The company logged a total transaction volume (TTV) of A$2.3 billion ($1.46 billion) for the first quarter, an increase of 11% over last year. Group revenue came in at A$204.4 million, up 31.9% from a year earlier.

U.S. bad debts continued to perform well with monthly cohort loss rates of about 1.3% of TTV, below the target range of 1.5%- 2.0%, Zip added.

($1 = 1.5783 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Roushni Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)