As of April 30, 2025, more than 5,100 listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen have disclosed their 2024 annual reports and the 2025 first quarter reports. Overall, three-quarters of listed companies made profits in 2024, with 50% of profits growing. The policy of stabilizing growth has driven the performance of listed companies to show resilience. The revenue and profit growth rate of listed companies in the first quarter of 2025 has improved, and their performance has continued to recover, and artificial intelligence has led the wave of the technology industry. At the same time, capital market reform measures have continued to be effective, and dividend repurchase of listed companies has hit a new high.

  50% of the company's profit growth

  In 2024, the operating income of listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen will be equivalent to 56% of GDP, and the total profit of listed companies will be equivalent to 54.9% of industrial enterprises above a certain scale. 74% of Shanghai and Shenzhen listed companies achieved profitability, while 48% of companies achieved positive profit growth. By industry, among the 28 major physical industries, 11 industries have increased year-on-year, while industries such as agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, electronics, transportation, automobiles, commerce and retail have increased significantly. The financial industry achieved a net profit of 2.7 trillion yuan, an increase of 10.3% year-on-year. Affected by positive factors such as hot market trading and rising bond prices, securities and insurance companies' annual net profit increased by 16% and 110% year-on-year.

  Commodity consumption has grown steadily. In 2024, the national consumption promotion policy continued to be strengthened, and the "old for new" and "national subsidy" policies stimulated the consumption demand of some residents for durable goods. The net profit of the household appliance and automobile industries increased by 7.1% and 11.1% year-on-year respectively. China's automobile production and sales have hit a new high, ranking first in the world for 16 consecutive years, and the penetration rate of new energy vehicles has increased to 40.9%. Driven by the dual benefits of pig cycles and cost reduction and efficiency improvement, the breeding and feed companies turned losses into losses, and the net profits of Muyuan shares and Haida Group increased to 17.88 billion yuan and 4.5 billion yuan respectively. The food and beverage industry continued to play the role of consumption as a "ballast stone", with net profit increasing by 5.6% year-on-year. Liquor continued to have high certainty in performance, and Kweichow Moutai's revenue and net profit both maintained steady growth at around 15%. The soft drinks, snack foods and condiments industries were blooming in many places, with the net profits of Dongpeng Beverage, Three Squirrels and Haitian Flavor Industry increasing by 63.1%, 85.5% and 12.8% respectively.

  Passenger freight is becoming increasingly active. Net profit in the transportation industry increased by 11.5% year-on-year. The performance of airports and airlines continued to improve, with net profits increasing by 75.6% and 69.3% year-on-year respectively. The net profit of Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed ​​Railway was 12.77 billion yuan, an increase of 10.6% year-on-year. The net profit of the tourist scenic spot industry increased by 2.0% year-on-year, and the industry tended to be concentrated in the top spot. The revenue and net profit of listed companies in the express delivery industry increased by 11.7% and 22.7% year-on-year respectively, and SF Holdings' net profit rose by 23.5%. The net profit of the shipping port industry company increased by 31.0% year-on-year. Affected by the positive impact of rising sea freight prices, the net profit of the water transport industry company COSCO Shipping increased by 105.8% year-on-year.

  Overseas business revenue continues to grow. In 2024, my country's export of goods reached a new high, a year-on-year increase of 7.3%, and the overseas business revenue of physical listed companies accounted for 14.3% of revenue. High-tech manufacturing export highlights have frequently appeared. The year-on-year growth rate of overseas business revenue of the communications, automobiles, electronics, computers, and biopharmaceutical industries is between 10% and 30%. Commodity exports accelerated their shift toward business overseas. By the end of 2024, 63.0% of listed companies actively deployed overseas businesses or production capacity. Zhang Jun, chief economist and director of the Research Institute of China Galaxy Securities, believes that with the advance efforts of various policies, China's economic trend is continuing to consolidate.

  The technology industry is in full swing

  The AI ​​technology revolution continues to deepen, driving the upstream and downstream of electronic communications to maintain a high prosperity. AI big model technology is becoming increasingly mature, driving the global semiconductor cycle to be upward repair. The R&D expenses of the semiconductor and consumer electronics industries increased by 17.2% and 8.0% year-on-year respectively, driving net profits increased by 13.2% and 12.9% year-on-year respectively, ranking among the top in all industries. The domestic "Artificial Intelligence +" action continues to advance, and the demand for computing power and terminal applications is growing rapidly. The net profits of Haiguang Information and Inspur Information, the leading AI computing power companies, increased by 52.9% and 28.5% year-on-year respectively, the net profit of Zhaoyi Innovation, the AI ​​memory company, increased by 584.2% year-on-year, and the net profit of Hengxuan Technology, in the field of smart wearables, increased by 272.5% year-on-year. The decline in supply expectations and the growth of downstream consumer electronics demand drove copper and aluminum prices to rise sharply, and the net profit of the industrial metals industry increased by 30.6% year-on-year. The net profits of Zijin Mining, Luoyang Molybdenum and China Aluminum Corporation increased by 51.8%, 64.0% and 85.4% year-on-year respectively.

  R&D investment remains high. As of the end of 2024, more than half of listed companies have focused on strategic emerging industries, and 80% of the new listed companies have been concentrated in eight major industries: new generation information technology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new materials, new energy vehicles, biology, energy conservation and environmental protection, aerospace, and new energy. New quality productivity continues to empower listed companies' performance growth. Listed companies are the main force of technological innovation. R&D investment has accounted for more than half of the R&D expenditure of enterprises across the country, and the number of patents accounts for nearly 1/3 of the national patents. In 2024, the total R&D expenses of physical listed companies were 1.6 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.1% year-on-year; R&D expenses accounted for 2.6% of operating income (R&D intensity). The number of companies with R&D intensity greater than 10% accounts for 16.1%. The R&D expenses of the Science and Technology Innovation Board increased by 7.9% year-on-year.

  Entertainment consumption, science and innovation energy, etc. drive the recovery of performance in the first quarter of 2025. In the first quarter of 2025, listed companies achieved operating income of 16.8 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.5 percentage points from the 2024 annual report; net profit of 1.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.6% year-on-year, an increase of 5.9 percentage points from the annual report. The net profit of physical listed companies increased by 4.3% year-on-year. Driven by factors such as improvement in manufacturing profits, among the 28 major industries in physical categories, 17 industries saw positive net profits in the first quarter, while the growth rate of industries such as computers, non-ferrous metals, media, electronics, and household appliances was the highest. "Nezha 2" triggered trendy toys, figures and other entertainment consumption, and the net profit of the media industry increased by 39.1% year-on-year. The "two-fold" and "two-new" policies have been expanded, and the profitability of high-tech industries has been improved. The robot market space is expanding and the integration of artificial intelligence is accelerating. Among them, Huichuan Technology and Quanzhi Technology's revenue increased by 38.3% and 51.4% year-on-year respectively, and net profit increased by 63.1% and 86.5% year-on-year respectively. The performance and prosperity index of the lithium battery industry rebounded, with net profit in the first quarter increasing by 33.9% year-on-year.

  Dividend repurchase hits a new high

  The collection speed of listed companies has accelerated and the cash flow pressure has been alleviated. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the fiscal government launched the "6+4+2" trillion-dollar local debt combination punch to further reduce the burden and increase momentum for local development. The annual report shows that local debt and debt clearance work continues to be effective, and the number of days for accounts receivable by listed companies has been shortened from 53.0 days in the third quarter report to 50.4 days, of which the number of days for private enterprises has been shortened from 62.1 days to 59.5 days, and state-owned enterprises that have undertaken more government business have been shortened from 48.0 days to 45.6 days. The cash flow pressure of physical listed companies eased compared with the first three quarters of 2024, and the year-on-year decline in net operating cash inflow narrowed to 4.2%.

  The dividend repurchase of listed companies hit a new high, and the efforts to return investors continued to increase. Against the backdrop of the vigorous promotion of dividends by the new "Nine National Regulations", 3,472 Shanghai and Shenzhen listed companies announced cash dividends in 2024, with a total amount of 1.66 trillion yuan. Combined with the previous and mid-term dividends, the total dividend amount in the 2024 fiscal year was 2.39 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.2% year-on-year, and the dividend yield of the Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 was 3.59%, both hitting record highs, bringing investors a "stable" sense of happiness. Pan Helin, member of the Information and Communications Economic Expert Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that dividends can boost investor confidence and stabilize investor expectations.

  Judging from the proposed dividend amount in the 2024 annual report, 10 companies, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Mobile, China Construction Bank, China Merchants Bank, China Petroleum, China Shenhua, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, Kweichow Moutai and China National Offshore Oil Corporation, plan to pay the highest dividend amount, and win the top ten "dividend kings" in A-shares.

  State-owned enterprises continue to play the role of the main dividend force, with nearly 1,000 state-owned enterprises paying a total dividend of 1.5 trillion yuan in fiscal year 2024, accounting for 62.8% of the entire market. The enthusiasm of listed companies to repurchase stocks has also increased. In 2024, a total of 1,470 repurchase plans were disclosed, with a total amount of 212.3 billion yuan, which is 2.1 times and 1.5 times that of 2023 respectively. Xie Zhiyu, deputy general manager of Xingzheng Global Fund, believes that growth momentum represented by technological innovation (such as AI-driven industry changes) provides the market with future upward value space; the long-term and stable dividend return mechanism of enterprises is also crucial to the stable development of A-shares. (Reporter Zhu Huichun)

[Editor in charge: Ran Xiaoning]