A total of 1,191 firms listed on Chinese mainland stock markets posted an average profit growth of 5.04 percent in 2005 year on year, compared with nearly 30 percent in 2004, according to the Shanghai Securities News.

But the newspaper did not give the number of combined net profits of those firms.

The listed firms, which exclude a group of firms delisted since 2005, recorded 3.74 trillion yuan in their combined revenues from their major business, up 22.59 percent over 2004, the Shanghai-based newspaper said in its latest edition.

It said soaring prices of raw materials are responsible for the slowdown of profit growth of those firms.

The newspaper said 1,191 of the country's nearly 1,400 domestically listed firms had made public their annual business reports by April 27.

It said 1,039 of those firms were profitable last year while 152 were money-losing.

Source: Xinhua