BEIJING (Reuters) - Profits earned by Chinese industrial firms rose 9.6 percent in April to 468.6 billion yuan ($75 billion) from a year earlier, slower than the annual growth of 10.7 percent in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.
For the first four months of 2014, profits rose 10 percent to 1.8 trillion yuan, little changed from the 10.1 percent for the first quarter.
Analysts see initial signs of stabilisation in the Chinese economy due to the government's targeted measures to underpin growth, but believe more policy support may be needed as structural reforms put additional pressure on activity.
($1 = 6.2486 Chinese Yuan)
(Reporting by Aileen Wang and Jonathan Standing)