China COSCO Holdings Co Ltd, the listed flagship of the country's premier shipping conglomerate, late on Sunday posted an 8.4 percent fall in first-half earnings, as higher operating costs outweighed revenues from improved shipping rates.

State-owned China COSCO earned 968.68 million yuan (US$128 million) for the six months ended June, compared with 1.057 billion yuan a year earlier.

Goldman Sachs had expected the company to announce an interim net profit of 1.35 billion yuan.

China COSCO is the world's fifth-largest container company, and has a 52 percent stake in sea container leasing and port company COSCO Pacific Ltd.

Shares in China COSCO rose more than two-fold in the first half, fuelled by the company's A-share listing in June and expectations that it will buy its parent's $10.5 billion bulk carrier business.

The stock beat a 16 percent rise in the China Enterprises index of H shares over the same period.