China's state-owned enterprises (SOEs) reaped handsome returns in the first quarter, drawing strength from a robust economy.

In the January-to-March period, SOEs raked in a combined profit of 512.35 billion yuan ($78.2 billion), rising 27.5 percent from a year ago, said the Ministry of Finance (MOF). Of this total, central SOEs earned 368.11 billion yuan ($56.2 billion), and the rest went to local SOEs.

SOEs' revenues totaled 8.09 trillion yuan ($1.2 trillion), representing an increase of 24.7 percent year on year. The SOEs also made an improvement in profitability as their profit-to-sales ratio came in at 4.7 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from the same period last year.

But not every industry was in the black. The country's biggest five power generators, for example, continued to spilling red ink due to surging coal prices, said the MOF.

It is reported that the National Development and Reform Commission has ordered to raise the on-grid electricity tariffs for some loss-making thermal power companies in an effort to cushion the costs inflation.