SHANGHAI - China reported 406 mergers in the first half of the year, with over $40 billion of funds disclosed, according to a report released by Zero2IPO Research Center on Monday.

Of the mergers, 383 cases revealed their transaction amount which totaled a record high of $40.34 billion, up 24.1 percent year-on-year.

However, the total number of mergers declined 10.6 percent from the same period last year, the information and consulting service provider said in the report.

Of the mergers, 359 were between domestic companies with a value of $12.74 billion, according to the report.

The number of overseas mergers by Chinese companies totaled 34, with a combined value of $17.89 billion, while 13 others were mergers by foreign companies, valued at $9.71 billion.

The mergers covered a wide range of sectors such as real estate, energy and mining, bio-technology, medicare, machine building and clean technologies.

Real estate witnessed the largest number of mergers, 55 in total, followed by the energy and mining sector that had 49.

However, the energy and mining sector ranks first in value, accounting for 43 percent with $17.34 billion, mainly thanks to the $15.1 billion acquisition deal of Canadian oil and gas company Nexen by Chinese firm CNOOC Ltd.

The finance sector is second in transaction volume which totaled $9.99 billion,or 24.8 percent of the total.