Mixed half-year fortunes expected

Only four companies in the food and beverage sector predicted growth slower than expected, while 14 companies said they would achieve a rise in profits.

"The medicine, environmental protection, media, and electronics sectors performed extremely well in the first quarter, and will continue that growth, backed up by plenty of capital being invested," said Chen Li, the head of China equity strategy at UBS Securities Co Ltd.

Chen added that the consumption level of consumers remained high in the food and drinks, property, automobile, and home electric appliance sectors, which will help companies in the sectors see further growth in sales revenues and profits.

On the other hand, the nonferrous metals and mechanical manufacturing sectors were expected to be the two biggest losers in the market.

Of 33 nonferrous metal companies that had released half-year preliminary reports, only 13 expected to have positive profit growth, while 10 companies said they expect growth to fall, and the same number expect to make a loss.

As economic recovery has been slower than expected, and demand has kept declining as a result of rising costs, net profits of nonferrous metal companies have decreased, said Guan Junyu, an analyst from Caida Securities.

Overall, those companies expecting to make a loss are spread across 17 sectors, the statistics showed.