The ZTE Corp., China's second largest telecom equipment maker, said Thursday that its net profit for the first half of the year rose 12.02 percent from one year earlier to 877 million yuan (128.97 million U.S. dollars).

The first-half-year revenue hit 30.73 billion yuan, up 10.89 percent year on year, the company said in a statement delivered to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

However, its sales in Asia outside China decreased 18.6 percent to 5.25 billion yuan in the January-June period because of India's ban on purchases of telecom equipment from Chinese manufacturers.

At the same time, sales in Africa rose sharply, by 78.75 percent, to reach 4.46 billion yuan in the first half of the year, it said.

Last month, Chinese Minister of Commerce Chen Deming urged India to provide a fair, open and transparent investment environment for Chinese companies.

Chen made the comments in response to a list of telecom equipment providers that India telecom operators are forbidden to purchase from on the grounds of national security concerns. The list includes 25 Chinese companies, including ZTE and Huawei.

The share price of ZTE fell 0.35 percent Thursday to 22.68 yuan on the Shenzhen bourse. It has declined more than 49 percent this year on the bourse.