Profits of Chinese brokerages surge in February

BEIJING, March 7 (Xinhua) -- China's listed securities brokerage firms saw surging profits and revenues in February boosted by rising stock indices, Shanghai Securities News reported Thursday.

As of Wednesday night, combined net profits of 28 listed brokerage firms that have released financial reports totaled 8.19 billion yuan (1.2 billion U.S. dollars) in February, up 44.1 percent month on month.

The aggregate revenues of these firms rose 9.5 percent month-on-month to reach 17.57 billion yuan last month, said the newspaper.

Guotai Junan Securities and Haitong Securities were the top two earners last month with their net profits amounting to 993 million yuan and 934 million yuan, respectively.

The sector's strong performance was attributed to bullish Chinese shares last month. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index surged 5.6 percent to close at 2,961.28 on Feb. 25, the highest close since mid-June 2018.