Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in China were fewer and smaller from January to November, according to a report by Chinese consulting firm ChinaVenture on Sunday.

During the first 11 months, Chinese companies closed 1,731 M&A deals totaling 105 billion U.S. dollars, down 41.3 percent and 26.5 percent from the same period last year, said the research report.

The manufacturing sector saw the largest number of deals closed while the energy and mining sector ranked first in terms of the scale of financing, highlighted by a record 15.1 billion U.S. dollar deal between China National Offshore Oil Corp. and Nexen Inc. in Canada.

But data concerning new deals remained steady. From January to November, China announced 4,475 M&A deals, up 16 percent year on year, with the total deal size inching up 3.5 percent to a fraction under 300 billion U.S. dollars, it said.

Cross-border M&A deals added to 36.55 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 34.8 percent of the total.