China Association of Listed Companies: Listed companies in the entire market achieved net profit of 3.58 trillion yuan in the first half of the year, an increase of 19.5% year-on-year

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on August 31, the China Association of Listed Companies released the 2026 semi-annual business performance report for listed companies in the domestic stock market. In the first half of 2026, China's economy was operating within a reasonable range. GDP grew 4.7% year on year, prices rebounded moderately, foreign trade grew well, and new momentum grew rapidly. As of August 31, a total of 5,557 listed companies in China's domestic stock market (including the Shanghai, Shenzhen, and North China stock exchanges, hereinafter referred to as “all markets”) have disclosed their 2026 semi-annual reports. The data shows that the operating quality and efficiency of listed companies in China is steadily improving, the pace of industrial momentum transformation is accelerating, the vitality of scientific and technological innovation continues to explode, the trend of traditional cycle restoration is improving, shareholder return mechanisms are becoming more and more perfect, and phased results of high-quality development are gradually showing.

I. Overall business situation

In the first half of the year, listed companies in the entire market achieved operating income of 37.76 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.6% over the previous year, and maintained a steady growth rate; achieved net profit of 3.58 trillion yuan, an increase of 19.5% over the previous year, an increase of 16.7 percentage points over the full year of the previous year. Among them, the second quarter achieved revenue of 19.92 trillion yuan and net profit of 1.95 trillion yuan. The year-on-year growth rate was significantly faster than in the first quarter.

According to the segmented data, three-quarters of companies have achieved profits, 60% of companies are growing in revenue, 40% of companies' net profit is growing, and both revenue and net profit of 2015 companies have increased. The median revenue growth rate for the entire market was 5.7%, and the median net profit growth rate was 0.9%. On an incremental basis, the performance growth of newly listed companies since 2024 has been superior to the overall level, with a median revenue growth rate of 11.4%.

The performance of GEM companies improved, with revenue growth of 22.3% and net profit of 32.7%; the performance of science and technology innovation board companies was more impressive, with revenue growth of nearly 40% and net profit increased 4.4 times; the revenue scale of Beijing Stock Exchange companies reached a new level, breaking through 138 billion yuan, and profitability continued to increase, and the net profit of 28 companies doubled.

The profit situation of state-owned listed companies improved, and private listed companies had plenty of growth momentum. Net profit growth rates were 12.4% and 29.6% respectively, up 12.9 percentage points and 20.9 percentage points from the full year of the previous year, respectively.

Of the 19 categories of industries, 16 industries have achieved profits, 12 industries have positive revenue growth, and 10 industries have both increased their revenue and net profit. All sub-industries in the manufacturing industry have achieved profits. Of these, the revenue of 8 industries is growing, and the net profit of 5 industries is growing. Excluding the financial sector, physical listed companies achieved revenue of 32.51 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.6% year on year, and realized net profit of 1.95 trillion yuan, an increase of 22% year on year. The constituent companies of the Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 Index achieved revenue of 22.30 trillion yuan, accounting for 59% of the total market share, and net profit of 2.78 trillion yuan, accounting for 78% of the total market. The core asset “ballast stone” continued to stabilize.

2. Industrial profits are increasing significantly, and consumption and foreign trade are improving

(1) Rapid growth in industrial profits

In the first half of the year, the total profit of regulated industrial enterprises nationwide increased 18.7% year on year, and the profitability of listed industrial companies continued to recover, achieving net profit of 1.61 trillion yuan, an increase of 31.2% year on year. Under the impact of external factors, the supply of upstream raw materials and energy was tight, compounded by a rigid increase in demand. Prices of commodities such as non-ferrous metals and coal remained high. The net profit of the two industries increased by 106.7% and 28.2% respectively. The supporting role of hard technology companies is prominent. “Guomo Guoxin” has jointly built an AI autonomous ecosystem, and the net profit of the integrated circuit industry increased 2.4 times; domestic innovative drugs entered the commercialization window, R&D value was realized at an accelerated pace, and net profit in the biomedical industry increased by 9.9%; technological breakthroughs were achieved in key fields such as advanced motherboards and aerospace, and the high-end equipment manufacturing industry's revenue increased 13.1% and net profit increased 16.7%.

(2) The development of service consumption is improving

In the first half of the year, the penetration rate of all categories of new energy vehicles was close to 50%, and the revenue of listed companies increased by 15.9%; the net profit of the black appliances and smart wearables industry grew by more than 50%. The number of domestic travelers exceeded 3.46 billion, demand for county tours and performance tours was strong, passenger traffic in the related service industry rose, revenue from the transportation industry increased by 6.5%, and net profit from the tourism, hotel and catering industry grew by more than 10%. The total logistics volume of the whole society increased by 5.1%, the logistics of units and residents' goods remained resilient, and the revenue of the four listed companies in the express delivery industry increased by 8.9%. The trend of communalization of youth consumption is remarkable. Cultural consumption and emotional consumption have become important increases in domestic demand. The pet industry's revenue increased by 11.3%, and the net profit of the gaming and cosmetics industries increased by 65.7% and 24.7% respectively.

(3) The foreign trade export structure is improving

In the first half of the year, China's goods trade exports increased 13.4% year on year, and continued to grow for 11 consecutive quarters. The overall overseas business of listed companies showed stable scale and new dynamic changes. 3196 listed companies disclosed overseas revenue, achieving a total overseas revenue of 6.06 trillion yuan, an increase of 22.9%. Of these, 553 companies accounted for more than half of overseas revenue. Structurally, the contribution of high-tech and high-value-added products has jumped. In the field of artificial intelligence hardware, exports of electronic components increased by 62.6%, and the overseas revenue of listed companies in the electronics industry grew by more than 40%; in the new energy sector, exports of lithium batteries and wind turbines increased by more than 30%, and the overseas revenue of listed companies in the energy storage industry increased by 27.1%; in the high-end equipment sector, exports of ships and offshore engineering equipment increased by 19.9%, and the overseas revenue of listed companies in the marine equipment industry continued the high growth rate of the previous year.

3. Innovation vitality continues to flourish, and green transformation is progressing steadily

(1) Accelerate the accumulation of innovation potential

In the first half of the year, listed companies actively forged new quality productivity. The entire market invested 847.3 billion yuan in R&D, an increase of 3% over the previous year. The overall R&D intensity was 2.24%, which was basically the same as the previous year. The three major growth sector companies have increased their technological efforts. The R&D intensity of the Science and Technology Innovation Board has exceeded 10% for many years, and the R&D intensity of GEM and the Beijing Stock Exchange has exceeded 4%. The next-generation information technology industry and the biological industry exert an innovative “goose” effect. The scale of R&D has both exceeded 60 billion yuan, and the R&D intensity is 4.3 percentage points and 4.5 percentage points higher than the overall level, respectively. 127 companies in the entire market have invested more than 1 billion dollars in R&D, 923 companies have reached the 10% mark in R&D intensity, and the transformation rate of innovation achievements of science and technology enterprises has increased markedly.

(2) Steady and far-reaching green transformation

In the first half of the year, a three-year campaign for energy saving and carbon reduction transformation began, focusing on nine major energy-intensive industries such as steel and cement, promoting high-end and low-carbon enterprise energy equipment, speeding up the transformation of restricted process equipment, increasing policy and financial support, and achieving double-digit growth in revenue and net profit for listed companies in the energy saving and environmental protection industry. The circular economy and construction of “waste-free cities” deepened, and power batteries ushered in a wave of large-scale “decommissioning”. The revenue of the comprehensive utilization of waste resources industry increased 26.3%, and net profit increased 1.6 times.

4. The entry and exit mechanism is smooth and orderly, and shareholder returns boost confidence

As of August 31, there were 5,558 listed companies in the market, with strategic emerging industries and high-tech manufacturing accounting for 60% of the total. In 2026, 102 new initial listed companies were added, with GEM, Science and Technology Innovation Board, and Beijing Stock Exchange accounting for 82%, mainly in the electronics and machinery industry; 21 companies were delisted, with the Shanghai and Shenzhen Main Board accounting for two-thirds. Of these, 4 involved major illegal forced delisting, 13 involved financial delisting, and 1 voluntarily delisted. The amount of financing from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange surpassed last year, and the supply of high-quality assets has continued to expand. Since the beginning of the year, 33 new A+H share companies have been added, and nearly 100 mainland companies have landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. A number of hard technology companies represented by artificial intelligence and biomedicine have emerged, further stabilizing the position of Hong Kong stocks as a global asset allocation hub.

A normalized and sustainable shareholder return mechanism is gradually taking shape, and the mid-term dividends of listed companies are increasing year by year. As of August 31, 872 listed companies announced cash dividend plans for the first quarter and half year of 2026, an increase of 54 over the previous year, with strategic emerging industry companies accounting for 50%. The total amount of cash dividends in the market reached 740.3 billion yuan, and the overall dividend payment rate was 28.7%. 57 companies paid dividends for the first time since listing, and 5 companies paid dividends several times during the year. State-owned listed companies play a “stabilizer” role, contributing eight dividends. Among them, 15 companies paid more than 10 billion dollars in dividends and 56 companies paid more than 1 billion dollars in dividends.

A number of listed companies have launched repurchase and increase holdings plans to strengthen investor confidence with “real money” and reshape market expectations through practical actions. As of August 31, excluding the cessation of implementation of repurchases, 1,051 listed companies announced their 2026 repurchase plans. The proposed repurchase amount exceeded 220 billion yuan, of which the repurchase amount with own funds accounted for 39%, and the completion rate of the entire market repurchase plan was 34%. The number of market value management repurchases has increased markedly. The proposed repurchase amount exceeds 100 billion yuan, forming a positive complement to incentive repurchases and increasing long-term returns in the capital market. 273 listed companies announced plans to increase their holdings in 2026. The two major state-owned capital operating platforms, China Guoxin and China Chengtong, have increased their holdings by more than 60 billion yuan.