China's securities firms post surging profits

BEIJING - China's securities sector saw sharp growth in net profits for the first half of the year, data from an industry association showed.

Net profits of the country's 131 listed securities companies doubled from the same period a year earlier, amounting to 66.7 billion yuan ($9.52 billion), according to the Securities Association of China (SAC).

These securities firms generated 178.94 billion yuan in operating revenue during the same period, up 41 percent year-on-year, the SAC data showed.

The total assets of the securities sector climbed 13.42 percent from the end of last year to 7.1 trillion yuan by the end of June, with 19 firms' total assets surpassing 100 billion yuan, according to the association.

Of all the businesses, Chinese brokerages posted strong performance in securities investment income, which went up 110 percent year-on-year to 62 billion yuan in H1.

China's top brokerage CITIC Securities reported highest H1 net profit and revenue among the 131 brokerages, attaining 4.62 billion yuan in net profit and 10.8 billion yuan in revenue during the period.