By Dai Yan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-08-15 15:24

Combined net profits of 24 mainland-listed innovative securities companies soared 425 percent to about 37.9 billion yuan (US$5 billion) during the first half of 2007, of which 23 have released their interim results, the Shanghai Securities News reported.

The 23 listed securities companies realized a combined net profit of 36.6 billion yuan during the period, up 422 percent from a year earlier, according to their mid-year reports. China Jianyin Investment Securities' net profit may have exceeded 1.3 billion yuan.

During the first six months of the year, the 23 securities dealers gained 71.9 billion yuan in business revenue, a remarkable increase of 408 percent year-on-year. Their total and net assets reached 841.5 billion yuan and 110.5 billion yuan respectively at the end of June, up 123 and 56 percent.

CITIC Securities ranked first among the 24 securities companies with its first-half net profit at 4.21 billion yuan. It was followed by Guotai Junan Securities (3.92 billion yuan) and GF Securities (3.14 billion yuan). Hongyuan Securities reported a net profit of one billion yuan, posting the largest growth of 220 percent among the 24 companies.

Securities companies earned much more from brokerage business, thanks to the bullish mainland stock markets. Trading volume of stocks, funds, and warrants on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets totaled 27.77 trillion yuan during the first half of the year, up 476 percent from the same period of 2006 and 2.47 times the figure for 2006.

The 23 securities dealers secured combined commissions of 45.8 billion yuan from January to June this year, accounting for 64 percent of their business revenue. Their accumulative stock sales revenue was nearly 16 billion yuan in the same period, accounting for 22 percent.

CITIC Securities' stock price rose by 8.51 percent yesterday, and Haitong Securities and Hongyuan Securities both closed up over four percent.