Shares in Genus jumped 6% after the animal genetics company said that it was "better placed than its competitors" to exploit a sharp rebound in livestock markets set to start next year.

The UK group said that it has showed a "resilient" underlying performance during the year to the end of June, when revenues grew 14% to £280.4m and earnings excluding one-off charges by 15% to £32.0m.

Excluding currency movements, revenues fell by 1% to and earnings by 7%.

"The steep downturn in world agricultural markets has been exacerbated by extremely high animal feed prices against a backdrop of global recession," chief executive Richard Wood said, singling out North America, where beef, dairy and pig farmers were losing money.

'Opportunities undiminished'

However, Genus said that it was better positions than rivals to "achieve a return to strong underlying growth" when recovery kicks in during the first six months of next year.

In the US, the company is this month set to complete work on a pig-breeding facility in South Dakota, and is expanding its bull capacity.

In developing countries, the Genus is constructing three facilities in China, which are set to open next summer, and has taken an option on a potential site for a Russian stud.

The company is targeting a 50% share of growth in the Chinese, Indian, Latin American and Russian livestock genetics markets.

"The long-term opportunities in the markets in which Genus operates remain undiminished," the company said, raising its dividend by 10% to 11.0p per share to reflect its "confidence

'Hugely impressive'

The report was generally well-received in the City, where KBC analyst Charles Hall restated a "buy" recommendation on Genus shares and a price target of 800p.

At Panmure Gordon, Graham Jones upgraded the stock to "buy", saying the group's underlying resilience is hugely impressive and better than we had expected".

However, he added that the rest of 2009 was "likely to remain tough for Genus, and until there is clearer evidence of a recovery in end market prices, Genus's share price could remain volatile".

At Evolution, James Wheatcroft said the dividend rise looked "slightly out of place when compared to the flat underlying results", adding that there was "no good reason for strong recent share price performance".

Genus shares touched 648p in early deals before retreating to close at 631p, up 4.0% on the day.