Profits at the mainland's biggest state-owned enterprises slumped more than 26 per cent in the first half of the year, but the decline is easing amid massive government stimulus spending and record lending.
The 136 top companies under the control of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac) posted a combined profit of 316.03 billion yuan (HK$358.57 billion) for the period, down 26.2 per cent from a year earlier, Xinhua quoted the watchdog as saying.
Despite the earnings slide, performance improved in the second quarter as the mainland economy felt the positive effect of Beijing's four trillion yuan stimulus package.
Compared with the first three months of this year, the plunge in profits at state-owned companies narrowed 15.6 percentage points. Their earnings grew 29.5 per cent to 75.19 billion yuan last month from May, according to Xinhua.
Revenue during the first six months fell 6.3 per cent to 5.36 trillion yuan.
Qu Hongbin, HSBC's chief economist for China, expects earnings at mainland companies will continue to improve in the second half.
