Good results fueled by economic growth and investment returns

Today will see the formal close of the almost two-month disclosure of interim reports by listed companies. Statistics show the overall performance of companies listed on the mainland two stock exchanges rose rapidly for the first half of the year and maintained the upward trend of the previous year.

The listed companies realized a weighted EPS of 0.1926 yuan, up 52.60% year on year, with net profit soaring 69.87% year on year to 326.2 billion yuan. Data from Shanghai Securities News show the 1503 firms with their interim reports released registered an aggregate business revenue of 3536.6 billion yuan, 33.12% of the total NDP for the first half, with 3502.5 billion from core businesses, 28.56% higher than the same period last year.

Meanwhile, ROE also rose steadily to 7.67%, up 37.30% year on year. The average net asset per share of the 1503 firms reached 2.478 yuan, an increase of 11.14% year on year.

These high-flying figures were generated partly by the well-performing macro economy, investment returns from the stock markets, and implementation of the new accounting standards which allowed a batch of enterprises to restructure themselves.

According to relevant statistics, for those listed before June 30, investment returns totaled 115.58 billion yuan, an annual growth rate of 182.4%. Nevertheless the fundamentals including the performance of these listed firms all indicated a strong and solid foundation of the prosperous A-share markets.

A group of large-cap blue chip companies presented jaw-dropping financial results. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China posted a growth of 62% and 54.48% in net profit. The newly-listed Ping An Insurance of China and China Citic Bank also saw their profit grow 104% and 86% respectively. China Petroleum & Chemical Co registered a 65% rise in net profit. They were the main force pushing up the overall performance of listed companies for the first half.

With higher quality in and larger quantity of listed companies after the share reform, 104 listed companies reported an EPS of over 0.50 yuan, with 21 topping 1.00 yuan. Yet only 47 companies revealed interim profit distribution plans.

In addition, according to the released performance forecast for the third quarter, 287 companies predicted “gain”, about 62.12 of the total 462. Many firms expected a growth rate as high as more than 100%.