Major industrial enterprises posted 348.2 billion yuan ($49.7 billion) in profits during the first two months of this year, up 16.5 percent from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday.

Major industrial enterprises are defined as those with annual primary revenues of more than 5 million yuan.

The NBS said that profits of state-owned companies fell 5.6 percent to 140.5 billion yuan, largely affected by conditions in the power and oil refining sectors.

Power utilities' profits fell 61 percent year-on-year. Oil refineries and coking plants moved to a loss of 20.6 billion yuan from a year-earlier profit of 15.6 billion yuan.

But some other sectors -- including oil and gas production, coal and construction materials -- saw profits surge more than 50 percent. Profits of steel enterprises rose 12.2 percent and those of chemical plants rose 16 percent.

The NBS also reported higher profits for private and foreign-funded enterprises, up 52 percent and 22.5 percent, respectively.