BEIJING - Most of China's listed firms are paying dividends now after regulators encouraged more rewards for stock market investors, the Securities Times reported Friday.

Over 740, or over 80 percent of more than 900 listed firms that have released their 2018 financial results so far have proposed dividend payouts to stock investors, the newspaper reported, citing data from financial information provider Wind Info.

More than 20 companies plan to pay at least 1 yuan ($0.15) in cash dividends for each share owned by investors, according to the report.

Many firms' dividend payments will account for a significant share of their profits, with Wuliangye Yibin Co Ltd, a leading liquor brand, planning to pay nearly half of its net profits in 2018 as dividends.

Regulators have encouraged listed firms to offer more yields to investors in the stock market, where dividend payouts were previously infrequent, and vowed to punish the stingy "iron roosters", a phrase taken from a Chinese term to describe a miserly person.

Listed firms on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses proposed total cash dividends of 1.07 trillion yuan in 2017, up 21.88 percent from that in 2016, according to data from the China Securities Regulatory Commission.