Brokerages' earnings hit 6-year high in Q1

South Korean securities firms' earnings hit a six-year high in the first quarter on increased gains from equity investment amid low interest rates and a bullish stock market, the financial watchdog said Monday.

The combined net profit of 58 securities companies stood at 976 billion won ($898.9 million) in the January-March period, the highest quarterly figure since it reached 1.1 trillion won in the first quarter of 2009, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

Their bottom line more than tripled from the 304.2 billion won posted in the same period a year earlier.

The FSS said that the robust first-quarter profit is attributable to strong returns from securities investment on the back of a low-rate trend and stock rallies.

South Korea's key policy rate has remained at a record low of 1.75 percent for months as the central bank cut the rate three times from 2.5 percent since last year.

The benchmark KOSPI soared more than 6.5 percent, or 125.44 points, to 2,041.03 points from 1,915.59 over the three-month period.

Their revenue from bond investment reached 2 trillion won in the first quarter, up 58.7 percent on-year from 1.26 trillion won a year earlier, while they earned 164.3 billion won from stock investment, a turnaround from a loss of 170.5 billion won the previous year.

The brokerages earned 1.7 trillion won in commission income in the first quarter, up from 1.36 trillion won a year ago.

Of the tallied firms, 50 players remained in the black in the first three months of 2015, logging a combined net income of 986.1 billion won, while eight companies suffered losses totaling 10.1 billion won, according to the watchdog. (Yonhap)