Renishaw's third-quarter profit soars on Asia boost

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May 13 (Reuters) - British precision engineering company Renishaw Plc (LSE: RSW.L - news) 's pretax profit more than tripled in the third quarter as it saw continued growth in its Asia-Pacific markets.

Shares (Frankfurt: DI6.F - news) in the company were up 3.6 percent in early trading. The stock has gained 28 percent since the start of this year.

Renishaw, which makes machine tool probes and gauges, said pretax profit rose to 53.2 million pounds ($83.42 million) in the three months ended March 31 from 14.4 million pounds a year earlier.

Revenue for the period rose almost 73 percent to 145.9 million pounds.

"Once again results are driven by a very strong Far East (Kuala Lumpur: 5029.KL - news) performance ... the magnitude of these orders in Q4 will be key to near-term movements, although underlying organic growth remains sector leading and encouraging for FY16 numbers," UBS analysts said in a note.

Renishaw has reported strong results over the past few quarters, which some analysts have linked to the launch of new products from Apple Inc (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) .

Contract manufacturers are believed to use Renishaw's tools, including precision measurement and calibration systems, to make Apple products.

Apple's revenue in China soared 71 percent to $16.8 billion in the second quarter as it sold more iPhones in the country than the United States for the first time.

Renishaw said on Wednesday that revenue from the Asia-Pacific region rose 124 percent in the nine months to March.

Revenue from the region had grown was 90 percent in the first six months.

Renishaw also stood by its full-year revenue and pretax profit forecast. It has already raised its outlook twice this year. ($1 = 0.6378 pounds) (Reporting by Roshni Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)