China Industrial Profits Rose 21.1 Percent in May but Fell for Automakers and Furniture Makers

China's industrial firms posted a 21.1 percent year-on-year profit increase in May, easing from 24.7 percent growth in April, Cnbc reported. The National Bureau of Statistics released the figures on Saturday. Profits for the January-May period rose 18.8 percent from a year earlier, compared with an 18.2 percent gain in the first four months.

The data cover firms with annual revenues of at least 20 million yuan from main operations. Manufacturers of computers, communication and electronic equipment recorded a 103.9 percent profit jump in the five-month period and accounted for 43.1 percent of total industrial profit growth. Non-ferrous metal ore mining and processing profits rose 93.9 percent.

By contrast, automaker profits fell 19.8 percent and furniture maker profits dropped 58.4 percent over the same period. China's factory-gate inflation reached a nearly four-year high in May. The U.S.

Military attacked Iran on Friday after an Iranian drone strike on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, with each side accusing the other of violating a ceasefire reached the prior week. Cnbc reported that China's central bank instructed some commercial banks to increase lending this month, according to people familiar with the matter.

Zhaopeng Xing, senior China strategist at ANZ, said upstream sectors and the computer industry drove the gains while downstream manufacturing remained under pressure, consistent with producer price trends.