Chinese mainland mutual funds posted a combined loss of nearly 126 billion yuan (US$19.72 billion) in the first half of this year while fund managers nonetheless made slight gains in their commissions.

Total losses made by the 763 mutual funds reached 125.4 billion yuan as the Shanghai Composite Index tumbled more than 8.8 percent over the period, according to a report by TX Investment Consulting, which studied companies half-year reports.

In the whole of last year, the 61 mutual fund companies made a combined profit of nearly 5.1 billion yuan despite the index sinking 14.3 percent.

Currency and principal guaranteed funds were the categories of mutual fund keep in the black during the first half - the others, including equity, balanced, bonds and qualified domestic institutional investor funds all lost, the report said.

However, commissions paid by investors for fund management edged up 52 million yuan from a year ago to more than 14.9 billion yuan.