Brokers earn half of profit from stock commissions

Major South Korean securities firms reaped more than half of their commission income from stock consignments in the fiscal first half, with the stock commission profits of the top 10 players exceeding 100 billion won (US$88 million) on average, data showed Monday. The commission profits that 62 local securities firms earned by selling and buying stocks for their customers totaled 2.94 trillion won in the April-September period, accounting for 70.3 percent of their total commission income, according to the data by the Financial Supervisory Service. The stock commission profits of the 10 biggest players, including Samsung Securities Co. and Hyundai Securities Co., totaled 1.07 trillion won, or 56.2 percent of what the whole industry earned, the data showed. Online trading-focused Kiwoom Securities Co. relied the most on stock commission, with the amount accounting for 93.7 percent of its total commission profit. Daishin Securities Co. followed with 88.4 percent and Hyundai Securities came next with 86.8 percent. Meanwhile, the stock commission profit of big players and small players illustrated a big gap. The stock commission profit of Standard Chartered Securities Korea came in at 400 million won, while that of Barclays stood at 1 billion won, according to the data.