Samsung Securities improved its third-quarter results this year as wider earnings in wealth management (WM) and investment banking (IB) offset a weak domestic stock market and lower trading value.

Samsung Securities said on Wednesday its third-quarter operating profit on a consolidated basis rose 11.7 percent from a year earlier to 449.0 billion won.

During the same period, pretax profit rose 16.5 percent to 480.4 billion won and net profit gained 14.1 percent to 352.8 billion won.

In the WM segment, a broader customer base and higher revenue from sales of financial products supported results.

Retail client assets stood at 578.7 trillion won at the end of the third quarter, up 47.1 percent from a year earlier. High net worth (HNW) clients totalled 524,000, up 52.7 percent over the same period.

Revenue from financial product sales also rose. Net fees from wrap accounts increased 75.9 percent to 20.1 billion won from a year earlier, and fund sales revenue rose 6.6 percent to 26.3 billion won.

The IB segment also posted stable earnings.

Total IB performance was tallied at 81.8 billion won. Of that, equity capital markets (ECM) revenue rose 147.8 percent from a year earlier to 11.4 billion won, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) revenue increased 120.9 percent to 9.5 billion won.

Samsung Securities completed an Ingenia Therapeutics initial public offering (IPO) and a Cheongho Nice acquisition financing deal in the third quarter.

Brokerage conditions weakened due to a drop in domestic stock trading value, but the WM and IB segments offset that and extended profit growth from a year earlier.