From an industry perspective, the photovoltaic and real estate sectors are underperforming, while the electronics and automotive industries are experiencing a recovery in prosperity.

The agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery sectors are accelerating their turnaround from losses.

The "mid-term exam" results for A-share listed companies have been released.

Wind (Wangde) data shows that 5,348 listed companies have published their semi-annual reports for 2024, with a total operating income of approximately 34.87 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1.41%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company is 2.9 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.37%.

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Among them, 56 companies have operating incomes exceeding 100 billion yuan, and 46 companies have net profits attributable to the parent company exceeding 10 billion yuan, with nearly 80% of the companies being profitable.

Thirty-one companies have net losses exceeding 10 billion yuan, with Vanke A, Longi Green Energy, and Tianqi Lithium ranking at the top, with net losses of 9.852 billion yuan, 5.243 billion yuan, and 5.206 billion yuan respectively.

In terms of performance growth, 57% of A-share companies achieved a year-on-year increase in operating income in the first half of the year, and 49% of companies achieved a year-on-year increase in net profit attributable to the parent company.

1,013 companies have seen their net profits increase by more than 50%, and 617 companies have doubled their net profits year-on-year.

From an industry perspective, the electronics and automotive sectors have seen a significant improvement in prosperity, and the agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery sectors have seen a substantial increase in net profits, with some companies accelerating their turnaround from losses.

However, companies with larger losses are mainly concentrated in the real estate and new energy industries.

Among the 31 first-level sub-industries of Shenwan, the net profit growth rates of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery, social services, electronics, automotive, and public utilities rank in the top five, with increases of 184%, 86%, 37%, 22%, and 17% respectively.

The net profit declines of real estate, building materials, power equipment, steel, and computers rank in the top five, all exceeding 40%, with the real estate industry's decline being 138%.

It is worth mentioning that the number of listed companies that introduced interim dividends this year has increased significantly.

Wind data shows that as of August 31, a total of 672 A-share listed companies in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing have released the 2024 interim cash dividend plans or plans, accounting for about 12.58% of all A-share listed companies, with a total interim dividend amount of 528.8 billion yuan, both of which have significantly set new historical records.

The top three revenue leaders in the first half of 2024 are Sinopec, PetroChina, and China State Construction Engineering Corporation, with revenues all exceeding one trillion yuan.

Excluding petrochemical and financial enterprises, China State Construction Engineering Corporation leads with a revenue of 1.14 trillion yuan, followed by China Mobile, China Railway Group Limited, and China Railway Construction Corporation, all with revenues breaking through 500 billion yuan.

In addition, there are a total of 56 companies with revenues exceeding 100 billion yuan, 109 companies with revenues exceeding 50 billion yuan, and 478 companies with revenues exceeding 10 billion yuan.

In terms of growth rate, among the companies with revenues exceeding 10 billion yuan, 7 companies have doubled their revenues year-on-year, with Seres, Wanchen Group, and Xinhu Zhongbao ranking at the top, with revenue growth rates of 490%, 392%, and 345% respectively.

In terms of profitability, most of the top ten are still from the financial industry.

ICBC tops the list of net profits for the first half of 2024 with 170.467 billion yuan, followed by China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, and Bank of China, all with net profits attributable to the parent company exceeding 10 billion yuan.

Excluding the financial industry and the "three barrels of oil," China Mobile, Kweichow Moutai, China Shenhua, China State Construction Engineering Corporation, CATL, China Telecom, Midea Group, Wuliangye, COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation, and Zijin Mining are the top ten "profit kings" among A-share listed companies.

Many industry-leading companies have performed steadily.

The liquor industry leader Kweichow Moutai achieved a revenue of over 80 billion yuan in the first half of the year, with a net profit also breaking through 40 billion yuan, with year-on-year growth rates of 17.56% and 15.88% respectively.

The company also announced the cash dividend plan for 2024-2026, which is that the total amount of cash dividends distributed each year is not less than 75% of the net profit attributable to the shareholders of the listed company realized in that year.

The leader in power batteries, CATL, achieved a net profit attributable to the parent company of 22.865 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 10.37%, with a decrease in operating income of 11.88% to 166.767 billion yuan.

CATL stated that from January to May 2024, the company's power battery usage accounted for 37.5% of the global market, an increase of 2.3 percentage points year-on-year, ranking first in the world.

The mining leader Zijin Mining achieved a revenue of 150.417 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 0.06%, with a net profit attributable to the parent company of 15.084 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 46.42%.

Zijin Mining stated that the upward trend of costs has been curbed, with the company's copper concentrate and gold concentrate sales costs decreasing by 8.8% and 6.7% respectively.

Looking at the increase in net profit per share, among the companies with net profits exceeding 10 billion yuan, 21 companies have doubled their net profits year-on-year, with Bailitengheng, Tongkun Shares, and Will Semiconductor ranking at the top, with net profit growth rates of 1521%, 911%, and 793% respectively.

The agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery sectors are warming up, while real estate and photovoltaics are cooling down.

In terms of industry, in the first half of this year, there are 14 industries with revenues exceeding one trillion yuan, among which the construction and decoration industry has the highest revenue, reaching 4.23 trillion yuan, followed by petrochemicals, banking, transportation, and the automotive industry.

In terms of revenue growth rate, the electronics industry ranks first in the Shenwan first-level industry with a 16% increase, followed by social services, automotive, computers, and home appliances.

In terms of the growth rate of net profits in the industry, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery rank first in the Shenwan first-level industry with an increase of 184%.

In terms of the secondary sub-industries, the growth rates of feed, fishery, and breeding industries all exceed 100%.

Listed pig companies generally have narrowed losses or turned losses into profits.

Industry leaders Muyuan Foodstuff and Wens Foodstuff have both achieved year-on-year net profit growth rates of over 100%.

Most pig companies attribute the recovery in performance to the rise in pig prices and the decline in feed costs.

The electronics industry has also ushered in a cyclical recovery.

Industry analysis believes that the rapid development of emerging technologies such as AI has created new demand for electronic devices such as chips.

Foxconn Technology Group, Luxshare Precision Industry, Transsion Holdings, Northern Hua Creation, and BOE Technology Group, five listed companies in the electronics industry, have all achieved net profits attributable to the parent company exceeding 2 billion yuan, with growth rates all above 20%.

Taking the panel giant BOE Technology Group as an example, its net profit attributable to the parent company in the first half of 2024 increased by 210% to 2.284 billion yuan.

The company stated that the main reason is the rise in the prosperity of the semiconductor display industry and the continuous optimization of the industry structure.

The semiconductor leader Will Semiconductor achieved a net profit attributable to the parent company of 1.367 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 793%.

It stated that as the consumer market further warms up, downstream customer demand has increased, and the company's product entry in the high-end smartphone market and the continuous penetration in the automotive market's autonomous driving applications.

On the other hand, overall, companies with larger losses are mainly concentrated in the real estate, photovoltaic, and lithium mining industries.

Due to factors such as declining housing prices and asset impairment, the performance of listed real estate companies in the first half of 2024 is relatively low.

More than 40% of A-share listed real estate companies lost money in the first half of this year, and more than 60% of real estate companies' net profits attributable to the parent company have fallen to the level of ten years ago (excluding companies listed after 2014).

The real estate companies that recorded losses include not only industry leaders like Vanke but also some state-owned and central enterprises.

The photovoltaic industry is also facing cyclical adjustments in the industry.

Under the mismatch of supply and demand, many links have shown a decline in both volume and price.

Longi Green Energy, Tongwei Shares, and TCL Zhonghuan all had net losses of more than 3 billion yuan in the first half of the year, with year-on-year declines of more than 100%.

Longi Green Energy attributed the decline in performance to the "continuous and significant decline in the industry chain prices" and the "impact of inventory impairment provisions" in its financial report.

Tongwei Shares also stated that due to the comprehensive and significant decline in market prices at all levels of the industry chain and the continued downturn, the photovoltaic business operations incurred losses in the first half of the year.

Interim dividends have become a new trend in this year's mid-term reports of A-share listed companies.

A significant feature of the mid-term reports of A-share listed companies this year is the significant increase in the number of companies that have introduced interim dividends.

Wind data shows that as of August 31, a total of 672 A-share listed companies in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing have released the 2024 interim cash dividend plans or plans, accounting for about 12.58% of all A-share listed companies, with a total interim dividend amount of 528.8 billion yuan, both of which have significantly set new historical records.

Compared with the trends of previous years, the enthusiasm of A-share listed companies to introduce interim dividends this year has been significantly increased.

Looking at the number of dividend-paying companies, the number of companies with interim dividends has exceeded the total of the previous three years, with the number of A-share listed companies implementing interim dividends in 2021 to 2023 being 186, 138, and 194 respectively.

The amount of interim dividends has also significantly surpassed previous years, with the A-share interim dividend amount being 104.3 billion yuan, 229.3 billion yuan, and 205.2 billion yuan from 2021 to 2023.

In April this year, the State Council issued the new "Nine Articles," which clearly pointed out the need to enhance the stability, continuity, and predictability of dividends, and to promote dividends multiple times a year, pre-dividends, and dividends before the Spring Festival.

It also proposed to include companies that have not paid dividends for many years or have a low dividend ratio in the "implementation of other risk warnings" (ST).

Under the guidance of regulatory policies encouraging dividends, many A-share listed companies have introduced interim dividend plans for the first time this year or after many years.

The China Listed Companies Association released a report stating that this year, more than 480 listed companies have paid dividends for the first half of the year (quarter) for the first time in the past five years.

Among the five major state-owned banks, ICBC, Agricultural Bank of China, and Bank of China all paid interim dividends for the first time since listing, while China Construction Bank and Bank of Communications have paid interim dividends for the first time after many years.

The total amount of interim dividends for the five major state-owned banks reached 190.177 billion yuan, accounting for about 35.96% of the total amount of A-share interim dividends.

In terms of absolute dividend amount, the main force of this year's interim dividends is still the state-owned enterprises, among which banks, energy, and telecommunications industries have the largest dividend amounts, with interim dividend amounts of 214.412 billion yuan, 93.426 billion yuan, and 71.243 billion yuan respectively.In addition, several private listed companies have also historically introduced interim dividend plans this year.

Mindray Medical, a leader in private medical equipment, plans to distribute a dividend of 40.6 yuan (including tax) per 10 shares to all shareholders, with a total proposed cash dividend of about 4.923 billion yuan, accounting for 65.11% of the semi-annual net profit attributable to the parent company.

Yifeng Pharmacy, a leader in private chain pharmacies, plans to distribute a dividend of 2.5 yuan (including tax) per 10 shares, with a total cash dividend of 303.1 million yuan, accounting for 38% of the semi-annual net profit attributable to the parent company.

"From the perspective of liquidity of investment returns, even if the annual dividend amount remains unchanged, a higher frequency of dividend returns will bring higher liquidity value and more certain cash flows," said Changjiang Securities.

In addition to dividends, buybacks, which have the same effect on increasing investor returns, have also far exceeded the level of previous years.

Wind data shows that, as of the end of August, 1,888 listed companies on the A-share market have implemented buybacks, a year-on-year increase of 105.89%, with a total buyback amount of 129.377 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 175.99%.

In fact, from the perspective of investors, secondary market investors have also increasingly favored high dividend, high dividend stocks in the past two years.

As of September 2, the CSI Dividend Index has accumulated a gain of more than 5% this year, with a cumulative gain of nearly 11% in the past two years, significantly outperforming the broad market index.

A secondary market investor told Caijing, "It is the normal logic for listed companies to increase shareholder returns through dividends and buybacks to drive market growth.

Against the current low-risk interest rate environment, if listed companies can sustain dividends of 5%-6% or even higher, this will be very attractive for a continuous influx of funds."