July's 2.7% decline in earnings drives Shanghai index to 41-month low
Chinese industrial companies' profits in July fell by the most this year in a further sign of slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.
Industrial companies' profits in the first seven months of the year declined 2.7 percent to 2.7 trillion yuan ($425 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on Monday.
That compares with a 2.2 percent drop in the first half of the year and a 28.3 percent gain in the same period in 2011.
In July, the profits of companies in 41 sectors were 366.8 billion yuan, down 5.4 percent year-on-year, the fourth consecutive monthly fall, according to the bureau. The fall was 1.7 percent in June and 5.3 percent in May.