Highest Half-yearly Figure
As the stock market had maintained bullish in the first half of this year, domestic securities firms saw their net profits reach nearly 2 trillion won (US$1.77 billion).
According to the Financial Supervisory Service on September 7, the combined net profits of 53 domestic securities companies in the first half amounted to 1.92 trillion won (US$1.7 billion). It was the highest half-yearly figure after posting 2.18 trillion won (US$1.92 billion) in the first half of 2015.
This was largely due to the increase of trustee fees and loan disposition and valuation profit and loss as the KOSPI was riding high for eight months in a row from December last year to last month.
By quarter, the net profit of the second quarter totaled 944.6 billion won (US$835.19 million), slightly down from 973.1 billion won (US$860.39 million) in the first quarter. By item, the fee income increased 17.4 percent to 2.21 trillion won (US$1.96 billion) compared to the previous quarter, while the sales management fees rose 7.1 percent to 2.01 trillion won (US$1.78 billion). The profit from floor trading, which securities firms trade stocks with their own money, amounted to 384 billion won (US$339.52 million), down 78.2 percent from the first quarter. This was because the securities companies made a loss related to derivatives due to the decrease of advanced redemption of derivatives combined securities.
The total amount of securities firms’ assets was 400.3 trillion won (US$353.93 billion), up 5.4 percent, or 20.5 trillion won (US$18.13 billion), from the previous quarter, while the total debts increased 5.4 percent, or 17.9 trillion won (US$15.83 billion), to 349.4 trillion won (US$308.93 billion). The equity capital also rose 2.7 trillion won (US$2.34 billion), or 5.6 percent, to 50.9 trillion won (US$45 billion).
Meanwhile, the net profit of five domestic futures trading companies totaled 3.1 billion won (US$2.74 million) in the second quarter, down 27.9 percent from 4.3 billion won (US$3.8 million) at the previous quarter. This was due to the decrease of trustee fees from derivative products compared to the previous quarter.