Kainos shares (LON: KNOS) surged 28% on Wednesday morning after the IT provider shared a “very strong trading performance”.

Customer demand remained high from 1 April 2020 to date and the group expects full-year results ending 31 March 2021 to be ahead of expectations.

“As referenced in our September update, our Digital Services customers continue to prioritise digital transformation programmes in the NHS and Public Sector, and as a trusted partner to the UK Government, we continue to support these critical, long-term programmes,” said the group in a statement.

“Our Workday Practice continues to benefit from its international scale and an ability to secure new consulting contracts across all our geographies. Alongside these engagements, our specialist Workday automated testing platform, Smart, continues to support over 200 international clients and to drive new client acquisition, especially within the US market.”

The FTSE 250-listed firm also said that trading had been strengthened from several changes including increased utilisation and reductions in recruitment, training and travel expenditure.

Earlier this year, the group acquired Intuitive Technologies LLC. Commenting on the acquisition Brendan Mooney, CEO, said: “I am delighted to welcome the IntuitiveTEK team to Kainos, and into our ever-expanding Workday practice. The team’s expertise, excellent reputation, and passion for building strong customer relationships aligns with our business, and we look forward to having them on board.

“As a leading Workday partner, we see this acquisition as an important step to deepen our expertise in Adaptive Insights Business Planning Cloud in the United States, where we continue to see growing demand from clients in modernizing their planning and financial management processes,” he added.

Results for the six months ending 30 September 2020 will be made on 16 November.

Kainos shares (LON: KNOS) are currently trading 27.84% higher at 1.304,00 (1051GMT).