Shanghai Stock Exchange Photo:CFP

 
As of Wednesday, 1,369 listed Chinese companies had disclosed their first-quarter results, with 1,144 reporting profits and 35 reporting net profits exceeding 1 billion yuan ($138 million). Technology-related companies demonstrated impressive financial results as China's economy steadily recovers and undergoes a deep transformation toward high-quality development.

According to data from the Securities Times, 44 listed companies reported year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter increases in net profit of more than 50 percent, mainly in industries such as pharmaceuticals, machinery and electronics. 

Industries such as electronics, basic chemicals, utilities, pharmaceuticals and computers turned in a strong performance in the first quarter.

The outstanding performance of the electronics and biopharmaceutical industries reflected China's high-quality development and push for new quality productive forces, experts said. 

The Chinese government is promoting high-quality development, encouraging companies to increase research and development investment and drive industrial upgrading. 

In the first quarter, the industrial value-added of high-tech manufacturing grew by 7.5 percent year-on-year, outpacing the overall growth of value-added industrial output of 6.1 percent.

So far this year, the value-added of the high-tech industries has been continuously increasing year-on-year. Downstream industries with higher relevance to technology are mostly in the "fast lane," Tao Chuan, chief macro analyst with Soochow Securities, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Compared with January and February, manufacturing investment in March in technology accelerated, including pharmaceuticals, general equipment, special equipment and automotive manufacturing, Tao said.

The Ministry of Commerce released guidelines on Saturday to support overseas institutions' investment in domestic technology companies to promote and deepen collaboration.

"We expect that under the continued stimulus of technology innovation policies, the prosperity of these industries will remain at a good level," Tao said.

With economic data exceeding expectations in the first quarter, multiple foreign financial institutions and investment banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank raised China's 2024 GDP growth outlook after the economy expanded by 5.3 percent in the first quarter. 

Goldman Sachs raised its forecast for China's GDP growth this year from 4.8 percent to 5.0 percent, while Morgan Stanley increased its outlook for China from 4.2 percent to 4.8 percent. 

Deutsche Bank upgraded its forecast for China's GDP growth this year to 5.2 percent, an increase of 0.5 percentage points from its previous estimate.

China's economy will stay on a sound and upward trajectory for the long haul, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a press conference on Wednesday. 

As China presses ahead with high-quality development and high-standard opening-up, the economy will be transformed and upgraded at an even faster pace while sustaining steady growth, and it will contribute more to the global economy, Wang said.