Pacific Securities announced Saturday that its net profit in the first quarter topped 112 million yuan (16.4 million U.S. dollars) due to the first-quarter upbeat stock market performance.

China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has gained more than 32 percent from the beginning of this year.

This was the first quarterly report from the nine listed brokerage firms and analysts predicted that the securities firms performance was recovering.

Zhang Yunpeng, an analyst with Beijing-based Huarong Securities, told Xinhua on Sunday that brokerage companies benefited from the turnover increase and index rise in recent months as more economic recovery signs emerged, adding that this sector was still bullish in the long run.

The total turnover of the Chinese stock markets reached 9.44 trillion yuan from January to March this year, only 3.5 percent lower from a year ago.

The southern Yunnan-based Pacific Securities lost 645 million yuan last year, compared to a profit of 749 million yuan in 2007 when the domestic stock market was bullish.

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2009)