Profits at China's industrial firms returned to growth in April, adding signs that the world's second-largest economy is on firmer footing.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Monday that industrial enterprises with annual revenue of at least 20 million yuan ($2.8 million) saw their total profits surge 4 percent year-on-year in April after a 3.5 percent decline in March.

For the January-April period, China's industrial profits increased 4.3 percent year-on-year, flat with the figure in the first quarter.

NBS statistician Yu Weining said the industrial profits improved in April with the macroeconomic policy measures taking effect gradually, and also continued recovery in market demand and improvement in industrial production.

Meanwhile, Yu noted that the broader economy is still facing pressures from the lack of effective demand and a complicated and grimmer external environment, calling for further moves to consolidate the foundation for recovery.

In the next step, more efforts should be made to front-load macroeconomic policy support early, move faster to develop new quality productive forces, drive industrial upgrading, expand effective demand and tackle issues faced by enterprises, Yu said.

Among the 41 major industrial sectors surveyed, 31 saw year-on-year growth in their profits in the first four months.

In the first four months, profits recorded by industrial firms that offer supplies of electricity, heat, gas and water grew by 36.9 percent year-on-year, and profits recorded by manufacturing companies rose by 8 percent. Meanwhile, profits recorded by mining firms shrank 18.6 percent.

Notably, profits at equipment manufacturing enterprises surged 16.3 percent in the first four months, 12 percentage points higher than that of the overall industrial profits.

According to a breakdown of the NBS data, State-owned firms saw earnings fall 2.8 percent year-on-year in the first four months. Foreign firms booked a 16.7 percent rise and private-sector companies recorded a 6.4 percent growth.