LISTED companies in China reported a much milder growth in profit in the first three quarters, China's two stock exchanges said yesterday.

About 864 companies traded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange reported a combined profit of 681.1 billion yuan (US$99.6 billion) and revenue of 6.92 trillion yuan in the January-September period.

The average growth of their net income increased 9.37 percent from a year earlier, excluding this year's newly listed and delisted companies. Last year there was a profit hike of 73.8 percent over the same period. Financial firms saw an average profit growth of 30.05 percent while the growth of non-financial firms dropped 6.74 percent.

About 487 companies traded on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange reported a combined profit of 80.1 billion yuan, up 3.38 percent year on year, through September.

"It is in line with our expectation that listed companies would deliver less satisfying reports. This year epitomizes a bumpy road which is roiled by destructive natural disasters and global economic turbulence," said Cheng Weiqing, a CITIC Securities analyst.

Financial firms look robust from their three-quarter performance, but could yet fall victim to the global financial crisis and experience a downturn, Cheng said. Already in the third quarter, the profit of financial firms had retreated 5.4 percent from a year earlier.

China's Premier Wen Jiabao published an article in Qiushi Magazine on Saturday saying that the global financial fiasco seemed to be far from its end and the deepening crisis would further affect China's economy.

Cheng was also pessimistic, predicting that growth wouldn't easily recover to last year's heights, if not continue to slow down or even slump.

In the subcategories, the real estate industry reported a profit growth of 48 percent in the first nine months. However, growth lost steam in the third quarter and slid nearly 9 percent from July to September.

"The government has unveiled various measures to save the market. The property sector won't collapse, but it is expected to stay weak in a long period of time," the Shanghai Stock Exchange said in an analysis report.

Steel industry profit also increased 29 percent in the first three quarters but slowed to 9 percent in the third.

The automobile industry suffered most from mounting fuel costs as their profit fell 25 percent from a year earlier.

The manufacturing sector, the largest group among Shanghai-listed companies, reported an increase of 16 percent in profit in the first three quarters. But again, their profit in the third quarter slid 16 percent due to higher production costs and global economic contractions.