Securities companies operating in Taiwan saw their net profit last month jump almost 200 percent from a month earlier after one of them made big gains on the sale of a piece of property in downtown Taipei, according to the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE).
The TWSE said on Friday the 84 securities firms in Taiwan posted NT$1.66 billion (US$55.3 million) in net profit last month, up 195.71 percent from May after Pacific Securities Co (太平洋證券) sold a commercial property for a gain of NT$1.17 billion.
However, if the gain from the property sale is excluded, the 84 securities companies posted a net profit for the month of about NT$490 million, down more than 12 percent from their earnings of NT$562 million in May.
The decline in profit reflected thin turnover on the domestic market amid lingering concerns over the global economy.
Volume on the Taiwan stock exchange totaled NT$1.37 trillion last month, an average of NT$65.1 billion per session, down sharply from total turnover of NT$1.65 trillion, or an average of NT$75 billion per session, in May.
Among the 84 securities firms, 39 posted gains and the remaining 45 suffered losses, the exchange said.
Of Taiwan’s 47 integrated securities companies, 25 recorded gains and 22 incurred losses, while among the 36 dedicated brokerages, 13 posted gains and 23 suffered losses.
The only futures commission merchant in Taiwan — Yuanta Futures Co (元大期貨) — had a net profit of NT$43,000 last month.
Integrated securities firms are allowed to engage in a wide range of activities that include brokering trades, proprietary trading and underwriting, while securities brokers can only trade equities.
Pacific Securities topped the integrated securities firms’ earnings list with a net profit of NT$1.14 billion last month, ahead of Yuanta Securities’ (元大證券) NT$175 million, KGI Securities’ (凱基證券) NT$133 million, Grand Cathay Securities’ (大華證券) NT$72 million and Goldman Sachs (Asia), Taipei branch’s NT$56 million.
Waterland Securities (國票證券) suffered the biggest loss last month among integrated firms, posting a net loss of NT$105 million.
It was followed by Macquarie Capital Securities, Taipei branch, with a loss of NT$52 million, Barclays Capital Securities Taiwan with a loss of NT$29 million, Primeasia Securities, with a loss of NT$28 million and Concord Securities (康和證券), with a loss of NT$28 million.
In the first half of this year, securities firms in Taiwan posted NT$10.94 billion in net profit, barely half the NT$20.05 billion in net profit they reported for the same period last year.
Yuanta Securities was the most profitable integrated securities firm in the first six months of this year, with net gains of NT$2.43 billion.
It was followed by Pacific Securities, which had a net profit of NT$1.14 billion, KGI Securities (NT$961 million), SinoPac Securities (永豐金證券) (NT$810 million) and President Securities (統一證券) (NT$587 million).
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