TAIPEI: Local securities companies last month suffered a more than 50 percent month-on-month decline in net profit in the wake of a drop in the weighted index on the main board and a decline in daily turnover, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said here the other day.
The TAIEX fell 118.98 points or about 1.21 percent from April amid concerns over the high-tech sector’s bottom line for the second quarter, a traditional slow season for the industry.
With many cautious investors taking to the sidelines, the average daily turnover for last month fell 9 percent from April to NT$97.4 billion (US$3.11 billion), and lower trading volume cut securities firms’ stock-brokering fees by 12 percent, the TWSE said.
As a result, the 78 securities firms registered in Taiwan last month posted about NT$1.8 billion in net profit, down 55.44 percent from April, the exchange’s statistics showed. The data showed that 47 of the 78 turned a profit.
The nation’s 45 integrated securities firms recorded NT$1.73 billion in net profit, down 55.27 percent from April with 30 profitable, the TWSE said.
Taiwan’s 32 dedicated securities brokers registered NT$67.60 million in net profit, down 59.36 percent from April, with half of them profitable.
The nation’s only futures commission merchant, Yuanta Futures Co, posted NT$848,000 in net profit for the month, down 48.42 percent from April, the TWSE said.
In Taiwan, integrated securities firms are allowed to engage in a wide range of activities that include brokering trades, proprietary trading and underwriting, while dedicated securities brokers can only broker and trade equities.
In the first five months of this year, aggregate net profit posted by the 78 securities companies totaled NT$14.2 billion, up 8 percent from a year earlier with 55 of them profitable, the TWSE said.
The exchange said that the increase in net profit largely resulted from securities firms’ overseas investments.
