Many leading Japanese trading houses have posted lower net profit for the first half of the fiscal year. Declines in resource prices was a key factor.

For the April-to-September period, Mitsui & Co. reported a 9.7 percent fall in yen terms from a year ago to 411.7 billion yen, or around 2.7 billion dollars.

Sumitomo Corporation suffered a decline of 10.9 percent to about 1.7 billion dollars.

Marubeni Corporation logged a 5.2 percent drop to roughly 1.6 billion dollars.

The companies say China's economic slowdown has lowered demand in the steel sector. Iron ore and coal are among the resources that major trading houses handle.

But Mitsubishi saw its net profit rise by 32.6 percent to around 4 billion dollars. Itochu Corporation also logged a 6.2 percent increase to about 2.9 billion dollars.

Itochu President and COO Ishii Keita says energy and metal-related markets will likely change drastically depending on how much the Chinese economy recovers.

Ishii says his company will closely monitor the impact of China's monetary easing measures and its economic policies.