Listed firms perform better in Q3

According to third quarter reports, 1,653 companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets hauled in better-than-expected profits, but still down 2.21 percent year-on-year for the first nine months.

The top 10 companies raked in around 60 percent of the total 289.6 billion yuan ($42.4 billion) in third quarter profits.

The 1,653 companies' income totaled 8.4 trillion yuan ($1.2 trillion) from January to September, roughly equal to 39 percent of China's GDP during the same period, a 6 percent decrease year-on-year.

About 82 percent of the companies made gains in the first three quarters among 1,653 companies, and 107 companies reported losses.

A total of 883 companies posted a jump quarter-on-quarter in net profits, including 310 companies which saw more than 100 percent profit growth, said Su Xuejing, an analyst at Changjiang Securities.

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world's biggest bank by market value, reported a January-September profit of 99.9 billion yuan ($14.6 billion), the highest among all the 1,652 public companies.

ICBC said it lent just over 1 trillion yuan ($146 billion) in the first nine months of the year, a 22.06 percent increase compared with all of 2008, because it increased credit flows to support the government's stimulus spending.

The other 13 listed banks also have benefited from a stimulus-fueled economic rebound, realizing a net profit of 339.3 billion yuan ($49.7 billion) in the first nine months of this year.

Among the top 10 most profitable companies, half are listed banks including Bank of China and China Construction Bank, and the others are large State-owned enterprises such as China National Petroleum Corporation.

Listed banks' performances improved in the third quarter, and they also saw a decrease in the number of non-performing loans, said Wang Mingfei, an analyst at Orient Securities.

Analysts said the real economy has recovered due to the country's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus plan, which mainly focused on infrastructure development.

The nonferrous metal sector performed best in terms of profit.

A total of 50 nonferrous metal companies realized an income of 87.1 billion yuan ($12.8 billion), a 16.14 increase compared with the second quarter, and a profit of 3.8 billion yuan ($557 million), a 113.75 percent increase compared with the second quarter.

The steel sector showed signs of recovery with 29 steel companies reporting a net profit of 10.3 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in the third quarter, up nearly 25 percent year-on-year, and an improvement over the 3.2 billion yuan ($469 million) loss in the second quarter.

The steel companies' performance in the third quarter was worse than expected, despite the posted gains. And the next quarter's performance may be even weaker, as companies need to use up their stockpiles, said Liu Yanqi, an analyst at Haitong Securities.