Brokerages' net profit to continue growing in 2025

As listed companies gradually begin disclosing their 2025 annual reports, the profit situation of listed brokerages is also becoming increasingly clear. According to Wind data, as of April 6, a total of 29 listed brokerages or brokerage parent companies have released their 2025 annual reports, accounting for nearly 60% of the total number of listed brokerages. The year-over-year growth in attributable net profit for all of them has been positive. Among them, eight listed brokerages reported attributable net profits of more than 10 billion yuan each. CITIC Securities recorded the highest—its attributable net profit exceeded 30 billion yuan.

Judging from performance in core businesses, driven by the upward market trend and active trading in 2025, both brokerage commission and proprietary trading revenue of brokerages achieved strong growth, becoming the main drivers pulling overall performance higher. In addition, some brokerages saw their investment banking revenue also grow rapidly.

Analysts believe that in 2025, domestic capital markets’ trading activity continued to improve, equity market performance gradually rebounded, and this led to a comprehensive improvement in brokerages’ core business segments. The securities sector is seeing three-fold marginal positive changes. Outperformance of 2026 earnings compared with expectations is worth looking forward to.

Eight brokerages’ attributable net profit exceeded 10 billion yuan

According to Wind data, as of April 6, among listed brokerages or brokerage parent companies that have disclosed their 2025 annual reports, there are 29 companies in total, accounting for nearly 60% of the total number of listed brokerages, including most top-tier brokerages.

Based on the disclosed 2025 annual reports of listed brokerages or brokerage parent companies, eight brokerages posted attributable net profits exceeding 10 billion yuan. The first seven are CITIC Securities, Guotai Junan (Haotong), Huatai Securities, GF Securities, China Galaxy, China Merchants Securities, and Oriental Fortune. Their attributable net profits were 30.08B yuan, 27.81B yuan, 16.38B yuan, 137.02 billion yuan, 13.7B yuan, 12.52B yuan, and 12.35B yuan, respectively. In addition, the 2025 annual report of Shenwan Hongyuan shows that its wholly owned subsidiary, Shenwan Hongyuan Securities, achieved attributable net profit of 12.09B yuan in 2025. Collectively, these eight brokerages generated total attributable net profit of 74.85B yuan, accounting for more than 70% of the total attributable net profit of listed brokerages or brokerage parent companies that have disclosed their 2025 annual reports.

All 29 listed brokerages or brokerage parent companies that have disclosed their 2025 annual reports achieved positive year-over-year growth in attributable net profit in 2025. Among them, Guolian Minsheng, Xiangcai Co., Ltd., and Guotai Junan (Haotong) ranked top three in year-over-year growth rates of attributable net profit, at 405.49%, 325.15%, and 113.52%, respectively. Ten listed brokerages or brokerage parent companies, including Zhongyuan Securities, Shenwan Hongyuan, and China International Capital Corporation, also saw year-over-year growth in attributable net profit exceeding 50%.

Among them, Guolian Minsheng and Guotai Junan (Haotong) both saw a significant jump in attributable net profit, benefiting from consolidation. In its 2025 annual report, Guolian Minsheng stated that during the reporting period, the company properly and orderly advanced the integration with Minsheng Securities, resulting in a marked improvement in overall operating quality and efficiency, with business innovation and synergy effects becoming visible. In its 2025 annual report, Guotai Junan (Haotong) said that in 2025, the company completed the merger transaction in a stable and efficient manner, with asset scale and operating performance reaching record highs, initially achieving the effect of “1+1>2,” laying a solid foundation for accelerating the building of a first-class investment bank.

From the perspective of revenue, among the 29 listed brokerages or brokerage parent companies that have disclosed their 2025 annual reports, 28 achieved positive year-over-year growth in operating revenue in 2025, and 14 of them had operating revenue exceeding 63.11B yuan. CITIC Securities, Guotai Junan (Haotong), Huatai Securities, GF Securities, and China International Capital Corporation ranked in the top five for 2025 operating revenue, at 35.81B yuan, 35.49B yuan, 28.48B yuan, 4.2M yuan, and 17.3k yuan, respectively.

Brokerage and proprietary trading revenue grew significantly

Among the 29 listed brokerages or brokerage parent companies that have disclosed their 2025 annual reports, from the perspective of various businesses, growth in brokerage commission and proprietary trading revenue drove a sharp increase in brokerages’ attributable net profit.

Wind data shows that in 2025, the Shanghai Composite Index, the Shenzhen Component Index, and the ChiNext Index cumulatively rose by 18.41%, 29.87%, and 49.57%, respectively. In 2025, China A-share trading value totaled 419.86 trillion yuan, with average daily trading value of 1.73 trillion yuan—both setting new annual historical highs.

With the equity market performing strongly in 2025 and trading activity rebounding significantly, both brokerage commission and proprietary trading revenue increased markedly.

Taking CITIC Securities as an example, its 2025 proprietary trading revenue was 38.6B yuan, up 46.53% year over year, and accounted for 51.57% of revenue. Brokerage interest net income was 14.75B yuan, up 37.72% year over year. Asset management fee net income was 12.18B yuan, up 15.9% year over year. Investment banking fee net income was 6.34B yuan, up 52.35% year over year.

In Guotai Junan (Haotong), 2025 brokerage fee net income was 15.14B yuan, up 93.01% year over year. Investment banking fee net income was 4.66B yuan, up 59.39% year over year. Asset management fee net income was 6.39B yuan, up 64.25% year over year, with significant growth across all business lines.

Some brokerages also achieved strong growth in their investment banking business. For example, in 2025, the investment banking segment of China International Capital Corporation generated operating revenue of 4.6B yuan, up 77.95% year over year.

Lu Zanhui, non-bank financial chief analyst at Shenwan Hongyuan Securities, said that brokerages’ high earnings growth mainly came from two aspects: first, brokerage commission and two-margin (margin financing and securities lending) businesses that are highly related to market trading activity; and second, proprietary trading business. The market often links brokerages’ performance with trading value and the growth in stocks and bonds assets. Therefore, their performance can be forecasted in advance using these indicators.

Aviation Securities believes that in 2025, domestic capital markets’ trading activity continued to improve, equity market sentiment gradually rebounded, and the transaction value across the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets increased significantly versus the previous year, driving an all-round improvement in brokerages’ core business segments. Specifically, brokerage business benefited from the expansion of market trading volume, leading to steady growth in commission income; as investors’ risk appetite returned, margin financing and securities lending balances kept rising, resulting in a significant increase in interest income; and proprietary trading business seized the opportunity of the equity market’s rebound, optimized its investment portfolio, substantially boosting investment returns and becoming a key driver for brokerages’ earnings growth.

Brokerage sector offers relatively high allocation value

With listed brokerages seeing high growth in earnings, regarding the brokerage sector, Sun Ting, chief analyst for non-bank financials and finance at Soochow Securities, said that since the beginning of the year, market trading activity has been active. In the first quarter of 2026, the average daily A-share and fund (stock and fund) transaction value is close to 3.1 trillion yuan, up 53% compared with 2.05 trillion yuan in 2025 (a higher base year). With the high base, it is expected that industry net profit in 2026 will grow 15% year over year. Brokerage revenue is expected to grow 23% year over year; investment banking revenue is expected to grow 10% year over year; capital intermediary business revenue is expected to grow 14% year over year; asset management revenue is expected to grow 10% year over year; and proprietary trading revenue is expected to be flat year over year. As of March 31, the static valuation of CITIC Securities in the II index is at the 6% percentile in history, and at the 13% percentile over the past decade—an extremely low valuation. Against the backdrop of high-quality development of China’s capital markets and the trend of continuous improvement in brokerages’ capabilities and efficiency in capital-intensive businesses, there remains room for China’s brokerage ROE levels and valuations to rise in the future. In addition, expectations for capital market reforms continue to strengthen, and policies encourage high-quality brokerages to become better and stronger through mergers and acquisitions. The advantages of large brokerages remain significant. Industry concentration is expected to continue to improve, and large brokerages are likely to receive valuation premium.

Zhao Ran, chief analyst for non-bank financials and financial technology at China Construction Investment, said that the securities sector is seeing three-fold marginal positive changes, and that 2026 earnings exceeding expectations is worth looking forward to. First, the trend of a year-on-year surge in trading activity in the first half of the year has been established, and full-year growth may also exceed expectations. Second, new account openings at the beginning of the year were impressive, with incremental funds poised to enter the market. Third, the marginal expansion in the scale of bond financing by brokerages is significant, which may drive leverage to rise and break through the industry’s previous high point in ROE.

“Market trading value for A-shares and funds in Q1 2026 and the balances of margin financing and securities lending are expected to grow rapidly year over year. We expect brokerages’ net profit in Q1 to continue its growth trend.” Shu Siqin, chief analyst for non-bank financials and finance technology at Guojin Securities, said that currently the PB valuation of the brokerage sector is close to the pre-“9.24” low point, and the PE is also below the pre-“9.24” low point, with a thicker margin of safety. Therefore, the allocation value is relatively high.