BEIJING - Chinese centrally-administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs) reported better financial performances in the first half of 2016 as the market-oriented reform measures began to take effect, said the country's top regulator of SOEs Thursday.

The total profit of China's 106 centrally-administered SOEs stood at 623.47 billion yuan ($93.27 billion) in the first six months, down 3 percent year on year, but the fall narrowed by 2.4 percentage points compared with the first six months of last year, according to the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC).

Thirty-eight of the SOEs reported a rise of more than 10 percent in revenue while 16 saw their income grow by over 30 percent.

SOEs in the coal, electricity, water and air transportation sectors saw their output and sales rise steadily.

Six SOEs saw a turnaround in their financial performance from suffering losses in the first quarter of the year to profit-earning in the second, according to the SASAC.

It attributed the improvement to the market-oriented SOE reforms. China plans to merge the centrally-administered SOEs to bring their total number within 100 this year.