HK Stock Market Move | CHINA RES GAS (01193) fell more than 15% due to the impact of a warm winter, causing a slowdown in gas sales growth in the second half of the year. Last year, net profit decreased by 21.74% compared to the previous year.

China Res Gas (01193) fell more than 15%, dropping by 15.25% to 23.9 Hong Kong dollars with a trading volume of 1.73 billion Hong Kong dollars at the time of writing. On the news front, China Res Gas announced its annual results for the year ending December 31, 2024, with revenue of 102.676 billion Hong Kong dollars, an increase of 1.39% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders was 40.88 billion Hong Kong dollars, a decrease of 21.74% year-on-year; basic earnings per share were 1.8 Hong Kong dollars; they plan to distribute a final dividend of 70 Hong Kong cents per share. During the year, the group sold a total of 399.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas, an increase of 2.9%. Shenwan Hongyuan Group pointed out that excluding one-off gains from the acquisition of Chongqing Gas Group Corporation, Xiamen Gas, and the impact of exchange rate fluctuations, the company's core profit was 4.148 billion Hong Kong dollars, an increase of 0.02% compared to the previous year, falling below the bank's expectations, mainly due to a decrease in the growth rate of gas sales in the second half of the year due to a warm winter and a significant decline in trunking business. Guotai Junan believes that the retail gas business remains stable, but a decline in trunking households is dragging down performance. In the second half of 2024, the company's retail gas sales volume was 190.1 billion cubic meters, an increase of 0.3% year-on-year; among which residential/industrial/commercial/vehicle gas sales were 42.8 / 107.6 / 35.1 / 4.6 billion cubic meters, with year-on-year changes of +5.3% / -0.4% / -1.7% / -9.8%, mainly due to the impact of a warm winter. In the second half of 2024, the company connected 1.76 million new residential users, a decrease of 7.9% year-on-year; by the end of 2024, the company's residential user penetration rate was 60.4%, an increase of 1.1 percentage points year-on-year. The company's operating profit in 2H24 was 5.95 billion Hong Kong dollars, a decrease of 17.3% year-on-year.