Up to April 8, 2009, 889 listed companies had published their annual reports. Their entire business turnover totals 75.175 trillion yuan (US$11.006 trillion), increasing by 16.14 percent over last year, realizing a net profit of 679.967 billion yuan (US$99.556 billion), oddly down by 5.74 percent, while the weighted average gain in earnings per share totaled 0.3803 yuan (5.568 US cents), according to WIND business statistics.

The published reports show that the listed companies' gross profit dropped 3.75 percent year on year, indicating that profitability is in modest decline. However if compared with more recent months, the companies' profits are in a recovery, as the reports show that their gross margin started to climb in Q3 last year after consecutive decreases in the previous two quarters. In addition, gross margin hit 20.96 percent in Q4 2008, returning to the Q1 level.

Regarding individual industries, performances vary greatly. Steel, non-ferrous, and oil all report drastic declines in gross margin, registering historical lows in Q4, 2008; whereas pharmaceutics, food and beverages, wholesale, and retail exhibit steady performance. The oil industry, including Sinopec and PetroChina, has now recovered to the level of 2007 year-end. Experts say that maintaining their growing margins still requires the recovery of the macro economy.

For more information, please consult the original article in Chinese:

?http://paper.cs.com.cn/html/2009-04/09/content_21427781.htm

(China.org.cn by Maverick Chen, April 10, 2009)