BEIJING -- Combined profits of China's industrial enterprises of scale rose 28.2 percent year-on-year to 3.23 trillion yuan ($504.4 billion) in the first eight months, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Sept 27.

From January to August, the main business sales revenue of the industrial enterprises of scale -- referring to enterprises with annual sales revenue exceeding 5 million yuan each -- surged 29.9 percent from a year earlier to hit 53.17 trillion yuan, said the NBS.

Among them, profits of state-owned and state-controlled companies increased 20.6 percent year-on-year to 1.02 trillion yuan while those of collectively-owned companies jumped 31.8 percent to 51.9 billion yuan.

In the first eight months, profits of large scale foreign-funded enterprises and those funded by investors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan registered a year-on-year increase of 14.4 percent, totaling 843.1 billion yuan, the NBS said.

Out of the 39 industries surveyed, 38 reported profit growth in the eight-month period, while the sector of oil refinery, coking and nuclear fuel processing reported an 85.3 percent loss in profits.

The ferrous metal mining industry reported a 54.5 year-on-year percent increase in profits while the petroleum and natural gas exploration industry's profits rose 36.3 percent.