China's slowdown weighs on firms' profitability

BEIJING -- China's slowing economy is beginning to weigh on the country's listed companies, with nearly half of them forecasting profit declines or losses for the first half of the year.

As of Tuesday, 449 listed companies said they expect their first-half profits to decline from a year earlier, while 233 others expect losses, accounting for 46.74 percent of listed companies that have issued their first-half performance forecasts thus far.

Due to economic complexity in the second quarter, 103 companies trimmed their profit forecasts for the first half, accounting for 64.78 percent of those that revised their first-half forecasts.

In sharp contrast to the situation this year, 725 listed companies forecast profit increases in the first six months of last year.

The slackened business outlook this year reflects the lackluster economic climate in China, as its economic growth slowed to 7.6 percent in the first half of the year, sharply down from 9.5 percent a year earlier.

The key Shanghai index, a major barometer of China's economic health, has declined more than 10 percent from its peak in the first half over concerns about a deepening economic slowdown.