The country's brokers reported a drastic decline in profits in 2008, as earnings from their services and investments in the equity market plunged, brokers said in statements to the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchange markets Wednesday.

CITIC Securities Co. said its business revenue totaled 17.673 billion yuan (US$2.58 billion) last year, down 42.75 percent from 30.87 billion yuan in 2007.

Its net profit fell 41.22 percent to 7.281 billion yuan from 2007's 12.39 billion yuan, with earnings per share at 1.10 yuan, down from 4.01 yuan in 2007.

Northeast Securities Co. said its net profit was expected to hit around 400 million yuan last year, down 64 percent year on year, according to its statement to the smaller Shenzhen bourse. Earnings per share declined 71 percent to 0.69 yuan.

Net profit for Hongyuan Securities was 437 million yuan last year, down 79 percent from 2007. Earnings per share fell 79 percent to 0.299 yuan.

Haitong Securities and Guoyuan Securities posted 39.51 percent and 77.02 percent drop in 2008 net profits to 3.3 billion yuan and 523.93 million yuan, respectively.

These brokerage companies blamed the tumble in the country's stock markets last year for their decreased profits, saying falling indices and contracted turnovers led to a drop in returns from brokerage services. Their investments also lost money on the stock market.

China's A-share market led the global stock market decline in 2008 with the Shanghai Composite Index plunging 65 percent throughout the year.

Market value of shares in Shanghai and Shenzhen stood at 33.5 trillion yuan after the first trading week of 2008. The figure reduced to 12.1 trillion yuan on the last trading day of 2008. That was a loss of more than 20 trillion yuan, or about US$3 trillion.

(Xinhua News Agency January 21, 2009)