A-share firms' overall profits flat-lining

The net profit of 16 listed banks was 1.03 trillion yuan.

"The banking sector maintains its strong advantage in the market after its high returns of the past decade, and that's expected to continue," added Jing Ulrich, chairman of Global Markets of JPMorgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd.

The property sector also enjoyed solid growth, with rises of over 24 percent in business revenue and nearly 15 percent in net profits in 2012.

"The property sector is expected to recover in the next two years as the worst period for the industry has passed — but it won't rebound under the continuous restrictions from the central government," said Li Shaoming, an analyst from China Investment Securities.

However, industries such as steel, nonferrous metals, construction and commercial trading, which increased more than 20 percent in 2011, failed to maintain that rapid growth in 2012.

The steel sector, in particular, experienced the sharpest drop, with a 144 percent slump in fortunes to a total loss of more than 6.5 billion yuan.

"The severe losses in the steel, shipbuilding and nonferrous metal sectors will affect the overall performance of the market," said Ulrich.

She added that if the economy continued growing steadily this year, it was still possible to see a rebound in the market by the end of year, but it definitely wouldn't happen in the first two quarters.