The China Merchants Property Development Co., one of the country's major real estate developers, posted a year-on-year decline of 16 percent in net profits for the first half of the year, attributing the slump to the government's tight grip on the sector.

In its semiannual report filed with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange on Saturday, the company said its net profits slumped to 1.22 billion yuan (192.3 million U.S. dollars) in the January-June period.

Sales revenues rose 24.58 percent year on year to reach 10 billion yuan in the first half of the year, according to the report.

Its earnings per share also tumbled 17.44 percent from the previous year to 0.71 yuan, the company said.

The developer's bleak report came as the Chinese government vowed to continue tightening measures over the property sector that were rolled out three years ago to cool the runaway market.

The measures include a ban on purchases of third homes and increased down payment requirements for buyers of second homes.

The company said it expects better revenues in the second half of the year, as more new projects will be traded in September.

In July, average new home prices in 100 major cities rebounded moderately by 0.33 percent from June following two separate cuts in the benchmark interest rate by the central bank in June and July to buoy the slowing economy.

The Chinese economy expanded 7.8 percent in the first six months of this year, marking the slowest expansion since 2009 and prompting calls for the government to adopt more stimulus measures to stabilize economic growth.

The company's share price dropped 2.32 percent to close at 21.08 yuan per share on Friday.

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