By Rajasik Mukherjee

Nov 14 (Reuters) - Shares of Australia-listed Xero XRO.AX rose to a record high on Thursday after the software firm reported interim earnings ahead of market estimates.

The stock gained as much as 7.1% to A$172.940 in its biggest intraday percentage gain since May 23, while the benchmark index .AXJO was up 0.5%, as of 0047 GMT. Xero was poised for a ninth straight session of gains.

The New Zealand-based firm posted a 51% jump in first-half earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to NZ$311.7 million ($183.31 million), beating Visible Alpha estimates by about 10%.

Operating revenue of NZ$995.9 million came in line with the Visible Alpha consensus but ahead of UBS estimates.

"Overall, a strong 1H25 result where cost control... was again the strong highlight," UBS said in a note.

Jefferies said the cost-to-revenue ratio was 71%, lower than the 73% guided for the full year, implying potential upgrades to earnings.

Xero attributed its revenue jump to subscriber growth and said its annualised recurring revenue rose by 22% to NZ$2.2 billion.

The firm signed up 186,000 new customers in the first half, helped by the introduction of seamless subscription plans in Australia and the UK.

Xero also unveiled plans to extend its collaboration with existing payroll partner Gusto to deliver an embedded payroll service for US customers.

The company said it expects total operating expenses as a percentage of revenue to be around 73% in fiscal year 2025.

($1 = 1.7004 New Zealand dollars)

(Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

((Rajasik.Mukherjee@thomsonreuters.com;))