China Unicom Ltd, the country's No 2 mobile carrier, posted a 19.4 percent drop in first-half profit on August 25, reflecting its loss of market share to bigger rival China Mobile. Unicom earned 2.33 billion yuan ($287.7 million) in the first six months ended in June, slightly beating an average forecast of 2.26 billion yuan from six analysts polled by Reuters.
The stock has risen 2.4 percent since the beginning of the year while China Mobile has risen about 29 percent in the same period.