Profits of 21 domestic mutual fund firms slumped more than 90 percent in 2010 from a year earlier as new data showed.

These firms, the first group of mutual fund managers to release their annual earnings reports by today, made a combined profit of nearly 7.86 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) last year from 288 mutual funds, a tumble of 90.94 percent from 2009, according to TX Investment Consulting Co.

Guangzhou-based GF Fund Management led the group with a profit of 4.55 billion yuan, followed by Beijing's Harvest Fund's 4.47 billion yuan and Huashang Fund Management Co's 4.38 billion yuan.

The worst fund manager lost 5.11 billion yuan, TX report said, without naming it.

Equity funds were the worst performing financial products held by these firms as 119 securities funds lost a total of 16.68 billion yuan after Shanghai Composite Index shed 14.3 percent last year.

Balanced mutual funds did a better job. All the 62 balanced funds posted a combined profit of 16.7 billion yuan while 56 bond funds earned a gross profit of 3.55 billion yuan.

Their lackluster performance, however, did not prevent these companies from charging more management fees from their clients.

Commissions made by the group rose 7.27 percent from 2009 to 13.57 billion yuan last year, TX report said.

China Asset Management Co has the highest commission income at almost 2.89 billion yuan, followed by 1.70 billion to Harvest Fund and 1.35 billion yuan to GF Fund.

Harvest Fund Co last year had four fund products among the country's top 10 most profitable funds, while China Asset had three.

Wang Yawei, fund manager of China Asset, the country's biggest fund firm, suggested investors to look for opportunities among bigcaps in the second half of this year as the market is expected to rebound.

Wang, who is considered as China's best fund manager, overweighed property shares as their prices are bound to have a correction while those with high valuations such as stocks in the ChiNext board could be risky, Shanghai Securities News reported today.