Chinese listed companies disappointed investors with bleak reports over the first half of the year against the backdrop of the economic slowdown.

As the period of disclosures came to an end on August 31, 2,475 companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges posted a combined first-half net profit of 1.02 trillion yuan ($160 billion), down 1.51 percent from the previous year, according to Shanghai Securities News.

The figure marked a steep downturn in combined net profits of listed companies, which saw profits surge more than 20 percent year on year during the same period in 2011 and 40 percent in 2010.

Among all listed enterprises, 2,130 companies made profits in the first six months but 46 percent of them saw their gains fall, while about 14 percent of all companies posted losses, 5 percentage points higher than the figure registered last year.

The average earnings per share of listed companies also went down 6.59 percent to reach 0.27 yuan ($0.043) in the first half of the year.