NH Investment & Securities said on Wednesday it posted a first-quarter operating profit of 636.7 billion won and net profit of 475.7 billion won, achieving its best quarterly results on record. That was up 120.3 percent and 128.5 percent, respectively, from a year earlier.

The brokerage (commission trading) business was the biggest beneficiary of a sharp rise in trading value in the domestic stock market. First-quarter brokerage fee income came to 349.5 billion won, up 57.4 percent from the previous quarter.

With average daily trading value for domestic stocks surging 80.5 percent from the previous quarter to 66.8 trillion won, the company posted domestic stock commission revenue of 309.7 billion won. Its market share also rose 0.5 percentage points from the previous quarter to 10.7 percent.

Domestic stock brokerage assets stood at 316 trillion won and contracted volume totalled 850 trillion won, up 17.6 percent and 91.4 percent, respectively, from the previous quarter.

Fee revenue from sales of financial products came to 49.1 billion won, surging 87.7 percent from the previous quarter. Asset management fees, collective investment securities handling fees and trust fees all increased sharply from the previous quarter.

Total financial product assets stayed at the previous quarter’s level at 173 trillion won. The number of high-net-worth (HNW) clients also rose, with 358,000 clients holding at least 100 million won and 24,000 holding at least 1 billion won, up 15.2 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively, from the previous quarter.

The investment banking (IB) business posted quarterly fee revenue of 97.2 billion won. It maintained the top spot in equity capital markets (ECM) underwriting with a 30.9 percent market share, and ranked first in initial public offerings (IPO) underwriting with a 37.4 percent share.

In lead management of credit card company bonds (FB), it continued to rank first in the industry with a 32.0 percent share. It also successfully wrapped up large deals such as major IPOs including K bank and Inbentera, as well as refinancing for a collateral-backed loan for the Seoul International Financial Center (SIFC).

In the investment management business, investment gains and related net interest income totalled 424.2 billion won, improving 21.5 percent from the previous quarter. Despite a trend of rising interest rates, it achieved investment gains of 243.0 billion won and net interest income related to investment management of 181.2 billion won through strategic asset allocation.

Net interest income related to wealth management (WM) rose 8.1 percent from the previous quarter to 127.4 billion won, supported by increases in average customer deposits and average securities credit balances.

Chief Executive Byung-woon Yoon (윤병운) said, "This record quarterly performance reflects that the diversification of earnings and the strategy to strengthen our customer base that we have pursued since I took office are now translating into tangible results." He said, "We will foster IMA as a new core growth engine while working to help the capital market contribute to real economic growth through productive finance."