China Construction Bank H1 net profit flat, hit by bad loans

China Construction Bank (CCB), one of the country's biggest state banks, said net profit for the first half of the year were flat, hit by rising bad loans. The bank's net profit for the January-June period rose just under one percent year-on-year to 131.90 billion yuan ($20.64 billion), the bank said late Sunday, just a fraction higher than the 130.66 billion yuan for the same period last year. China's economy grew 7.0 percent in each of the first two quarters, slowing from a 7.4 percent expansi