China Inc. likely to post first quarterly profit in a year

Chinese onshore listed companies are likely to post the first quarterly profit growth in a year for the three-month period ended September, which should provide a respite to the sell-offs that have wiped out $3.8 trillion in market capitalization this year, reports the South China Morning Post.

Third-quarter net income for the 1,957 companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange probably increased 8% from a year earlier, while profits for the 2,737 firms on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange may have risen 14% in the span, according to Bloomberg data. If that materializes, it would reverse four quarters of declining earnings.

The projections would see them outperforming the S&P 500 companies. Profit growth for the US companies probably slowed to 2.4% in the third quarter, the weakest pace in two years, because of rising labor costs, a supply chain snarl and a stronger US dollar that hurt companies with international revenue exposure, according to US financial data provider FactSet Research Systems.