CHINA’S industrial profits rose 0.4 percent from a year earlier in September, reversing August’s decline of 0.6 percent as the world’s second-largest economy stabilized.

Profits totaled 563.4 billion yuan (US$92 billion) last month at China’s large industrial enterprises with annual revenues above 20 million yuan, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement yesterday.

Last month’s rebound was attributed to faster growth in sales, falling costs and a surge in earnings in the electronics, automobile and electrical machinery sectors, He Ping, a researcher at the bureau’s industrial department, said in the statement.

The quicker profit growth echoed last week’s HSBC Flash China Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, which edged up to 50.4 in October from the final reading of 50.2 in September as the manufacturing sector stabilized.

Profits of computer, communications and electronics manufacturing companies grew 34.4 percent in September, up from an 11.8 percent rise in August, while those in the electrical machinery and equipment sector rose to 11.2 percent from 0.9 percent in August. The automobile industry drove to a 9.1 percent rise in profit, reversing a fall of 3.4 percent in August.

Between January and September, industrial profits rose 7.9 percent to 4.4 trillion yuan, easing from a 10 percent rise in the first eight months.

Private businesses grew their profits by 9.7 percent for the nine-month period, higher than the 0.2 percent by state-owned enterprises, data showed. Foreign-invested enterprises and those from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan posted the strongest growth of 13.6 percent in profit in the first nine months.