China's industrial profits sharply declined by 4.6 percent year-on-year in October, widening the 0.1 percent drop in September, leading to a further delay in the economic rebound than expected and adding to the corporate debt default risk.

The sluggish data reported by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday was mainly driven down by the energy-and commodity-intensive industries with problems of overcapacity, including oil, steel and coal.

But the high-tech manufacturing industry achieved 14.2 percent year-on-year profit growth. Profits in the equipment manufacturing industry increased by 8.6 percent, the NBS said.