Majority of listed firms expect better performance

More than 950 listed companies are optimistic on how they performed last year, the China Security Journal reported Monday. Among 958 companies that have released preliminary reports, 709 predict their profits will increase, 147 expect to stop losses, while 102 said profitability will be sustained. As of Sunday, 1,442 firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges unveiled their forecasts on business performance in 2013, accounting for roughly half of the companies trading on the two bourses. By sectors, enterprises in property, national defense, medicine, telecoms, non-ferrous metal, electric power and iron and steel gave a hopeful forecast. The country's telecoms sector was mainly boosted by increasing investment in 4G (fourth generation) technology, while non-ferrous metal and iron and steel companies benefited from recovering demand and dropping production costs. The electric power industry was helped by plunging prices of coal, a major material. Twenty enterprises out of 22 that have posted forecasts expect profits to rise for 2013. SDIC Power Holdings Co. forecast its net profit to soar by 200 percent, while Huadian Power International Corporation expect a profit rise by 170 percent to 195 percent year on year. Bucking the trend, most coal mining firms forecast shrinking profits, dragged down by a lackluster industrial climate. Fifteen out of 18 listed companies predict falling profit ratio. Businesses in food, beverage and catering sectors also suffered, hit by the central government's efforts to eliminate banquets at the public's expense, while agricultural companies, especially animal husbandry, bore heavy losses as result of bird flu. Shandong Minhe Animal Husbandry Co. expects to see 220 million yuan (36.05 million U.S. dollars) to 230 million yuan of losses for 2013. Xiangcai Securities predicts a general profitability decline of listed companies in 2014, triggered by the country's attention on economic health rather than growth rate. Real estate and iron and steel sectors were unlikely to keep rising this year, as the former would be weighed on by retreating sales revenue in 2013 and the latter by falling demand given the current economic outlook, it said. The Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.69 percent to close at 2,040.3 by the end of the morning session on Monday, while the Shenzhen Component Index lost 1.05 percent to close at 7,772.73.