H1 results of listed firms disappointing

BEIJING -- Chinese listed companies disappointed investors with bleak reports over the first half of the year against a backdrop of the economic slowdown.

As the period of disclosures came to an end on Friday, 2,475 companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges posted a combined first-half net profit of 1.02 trillion yuan ($160 billion), down 1.51 percent from the previous year, according to data calculated by the Shanghai Securities News.

The figure marked an steep downturn in combined net profits of listed companies, which saw profits surge over 20 percent year-on-year during the same period in 2011 and 40 percent in 2010.

Business revenues of the listed companies totaled 11.6 trillion yuan in the first six months, according to their half-year results.

Among all listed enterprises, 2,130 companies made profits in the first six months but 46 percent of them saw their gains fall, while about 14 percent of all companies posted losses, 5 percentage points higher than the figure registered last year.

The performances of the listed companies, the non-financial sectors in particular, have started improving in the April-June period after a disappointing first quarter.

On a quarterly basis, aggregated net profits of non-financial firms rose more than 4 percent in the April-June period from three months previous, breaking consecutive quarterly declines since the fourth quarter of last year.

The average earnings per share of listed companies also went down 6.59 percent to reach 0.2713 yuan in the first half of the year.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index wavered around its lowest level in three years during Friday's morning trade, as investors, whose confidence has been battered over the past weeks, are not sure whether the Chinese economy has bottomed out during the second quarter.