China Mobile Q2 net profit tad lower than forecast

HONG KONG Aug 16 (Reuters) - China Mobile Ltd, the world's biggest wireless carrier by subscribers, produced second-quarter net profit that was slightly lower than forecast as the carrier was pressured by rival subscriber schemes and rising handsets subsidies.

China Mobile posted a net profit of 34.4 billion yuan ($5.5 billion) in April-June, compared with a 35.2 billion yuan average forecast from seven analysts polled by Reuters and little changed from 34.42 billion yuan a year earlier.

Reuters calculated the second-quarter figures using company data.

China Mobile's net profit of 62.202 billion yuan for the first half of 2012 was up 1.5 percent from 61.283 billion yuan a year earlier, a statement on the Hong Kong stock exchange showed on Thursday.

The carrier competes with China Unicom and China Telecom Corp Ltd in the world's biggest mobile phone market, which had 1.05 billion subscribers in June.

Since the beginning of this year, China Mobile's Hong Kong-listed shares have risen about 20 percent, compared with a roughly 10 percent gain in the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index. (Reporting by Lee Chyen Yee; Editing by Neil Fullick)