HONG KONG, China - Sun Art Retail Group Ltd on Thursday reported a 7 percent rise in nine-month net profit, as China's biggest hypermarket chain continued to expand into lower-tier cities.

The joint venture between Taiwanese conglomerate Ruentex Group and French retailer Groupe Auchan SA said net profit reached 2.34 billion yuan ($382 million) in January-September, on turnover of 70.24 billion yuan from 65.69 billion yuan a year earlier.

Sun Art launched a website in January to drive sales further through e-commerce. It competes with China Resources Enterprise Ltd and Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's biggest retailer that controls Chinese online store Yihaodian.

Shares of Sun Art rose 0.7 percent on Thursday, outpacing a 0.3 percent gain in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.

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