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By Yin Lei

A-share companies generated 31.9 trillion yuan (4.66 trillion U.S. dollars) in revenues in the first three quarters of 2018, reported Securities Times on Monday.

The year 2018 has witnessed a downturn in China’s stock market, with the Shanghai Composite Index plunging by over 20 percent and the A-share total market capitalization down by 13 trillion yuan (1.9 trillion U.S. dollars), the largest decrease in a decade, to 43.38 trillion yuan (6.34 trillion U.S. dollars) at the year end.

The market value of many giants shrank too. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China saw 245.3 billion yuan (35.83 billion U.S. dollars) wiped out in the past twelve months.

Small and medium-sized companies, on the other hand, surged in number. Statistics from Securities Times show that the number of A-share companies with a market capitalization of less than 3 billion yuan (438.21 million U.S. dollars) have increased by 1.7 times to 1,213 in 2018.

Despite this slump, from January to September, the A-share market’s 3,584 companies saw double-digit growth in their revenues and profits as China’s structural reform continued yielding benefits.

Their total revenues during this period climbed by 12.5 percent from a year earlier to 31.9 trillion yuan (4.66 trillion U.S. dollars), equivalent to half of China’s economic output for the same period, and their profits were up by over 10 percent to 3 trillion yuan (438.3 billion U.S. dollars). Dividends offered by these companies in 2018 exceeded 1 trillion yuan (146.1 billion U.S. dollars) for the first time.

As of the end of 2018, 1,200 A-share companies had released previews of their annual reports, in which over half of them expected to reap profits for the year.

Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong had the largest number of listed companies and initial public offerings (IPOs). Guangdong topped the list with 587 A-share companies while Jiangsu beat others to see 19 successful IPO deals in 2018.