BEIJING - China's SOE watchdog said Wednesday it graded 47 centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that performed exceptionally last year with an A rating, up from 38 firms in 2009.

The A-rating list mainly covers military, transport, construction and petrochemical sectors, said a statement posted on the website of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

About 8 firms, including the tourism company Overseas Chinese Town Group, the country's airline giant China Eastern Airlines, and the property developer China Poly Group Corporation, were named to the list for the first time, the statement said.

The SASAC adopted a five-level rating system to measure performances of 121 SOEs affiliated with the central government last year, with A being the highest, followed by B, C, D and E.

Under this new performance assessment system, the economic value added (EVA) measure replaces return on net assets and accounts for 40 percent of the criteria evaluating SOEs' performances. The system aims to strengthen their value creation capabilities, according to the SASAC.

Meanwhile, 51 firms were rated with a B, 21 with a C and 2 with a D, said the statement. But it didn't disclose those lists.

Only one firm was downgraded due to safety concerns while 12 others lost points for the same reason, it said.

The total EVA of the country's central SOEs increased 1.4 times from a year earlier to 388.71 billion yuan ($60.32 billion) in 2010. About 96 firms reported positive EVA last year, up from 83 in 2009, according to the statement.