Securities firms' Q1 net spikes 77% on increased commission income

Securities companies in South Korea saw their net profit soar 77 percent in the first quarter of the year largely due to increased commission income from the sharp increase in stock trading, data showed Friday. The combined net profit of 61 domestic securities firms came to 4.33 trillion won ($2.83 billion) in the January-March period, compared with 2.44 trillion won a year earlier, according to the data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The companies' combined income from commission fees almost doubled to 6.69 trillion won in the first quarter from 3.33 trillion won a year earlier, aided by a surge in stock trading, while their combined income from their own investment or stock trading gained 31 percent to 4.1 trillion won over the cited period. In the January-March period, stock turnover came in at 2,775 trillion won, sharply up from the previous year's 641 trillion won, according to the watchdog. Their combined assets had stood at 1,098.4 trillion won as of end-March, up 154 trillion won, or 16.3 percent, from three months earlier, and debts gained 26.8 percent to 991.5 trillion