Shares in industrial materials producer Morgan Crucible soared after it reported record full-year revenues and profits today.

Surging performance in emerging markets pushed revenues up 8.2 per cent to £1.1 billion and pre-tax profits up by 64.5 per cent to £111.4 million.

The 59.9 per cent increase in underlying earnings per share (EPS) has allowed the firm to raise its dividend by 20 per cent to 9.25p.

Mark Robertshaw, chief executive officer of Morgan Crucible, commented, ‘The group's continuing strategy of focusing on the right growth markets and the right growth geographies with innovative, differentiated, added-value products drove revenue and underlying operating profit to record levels in 2011.’

The firm increased its revenues from ‘dynamic growth economies’, such as China, India and Brazil by 23 per cent, with those areas now accounting for around a quarter of all revenues.

Morgan Crucible claimed ‘significant progress’ had been made towards its ambitious pledge, made last year, to double its underlying profit before tax in three years.

Robertshaw explained, ‘Morgan Crucible's robust levels of top-line growth, allied to continuous improvement initiatives on our cost base, meant we made significant progress in 2011 against the 2013 financial goals that we announced at the beginning of last year.’

Investors seemed to share the firm’s optimism, with shares in Morgan Crucible currently trading up 6.85 per cent at 349.5p at 12pm, just short of its historic high of 357.1p in July 2011.