Aug 15 (Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com ( JD )

beat estimates for quarterly profit on Thursday,

helped by a mid-year sales festival and aggressive price cuts

that drove more cost-sensitive consumers to its platform.

U.S.-listed shares of the company rose 2.6% in premarket

trading.

Major Chinese vendors like JD.com ( JD ) and Alibaba ( BABA ) have

increased focus on discounting and lower-priced goods as the

world's second largest economy sees a pullback from customers

that as conscious about spending.

Excluding items, JD.com's ( JD ) second-quarter profit rose 73.7%

to 9.36 yuan per share, compared with estimates of 6.07 yuan,

according to LSEG data.

JD.com's ( JD ) general and administrative costs reduced by

9.6% in the quarter.

Customers are reigning in costs, in response to a stuttering

post-COVID recovery, which helped boost low-cost e-commerce

players such as PDD Holdings ( PDD ).

This increase in competition has led to a bruising price war

between larger rivals as they look to attract the same pool of

customers.

Retailer's rely heavily on major discounting events such as

China's mid-year e-commerce sales festival which took place in

June, to boost overall growth and exposure.

The so called "618" shopping event, named after the June 18

founding date of e-commerce provider JD.com ( JD ) , but embraced by

all platforms, gauges the market sentiment among household

consumers.

JD.com ( JD ) said in June its turnover and order volumes reached a

new high over the festival period, which ran from the end of May

to June 18 this year.

The company's total revenue rose 1.2% to 291.40 billion yuan

($40.71 billion) in the second quarter, compared with estimates

of 292.89 billion yuan.

($1 = 7.1585 Chinese yuan renminbi)