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Domestic brokerages bounced back in the first three months of the year from their disappointing earnings in the last quarter of 2018.
They flagged an earning shock in the fourth quarter last year due to the sluggish stock market, but their earnings are estimated to have tripled in the first quarter of 2019 thanks to solid investment banking performances and growing stock trading volume.
Online market researcher FnGuide said the nation's five largest brokerages are forecast to post am aggregated 573.5 billion won ($491.4 million) net profit for the first quarter, according to a market consensus projected by more than three research groups.
The five are Mirae Asset Daewoo, Korea Investment & Securities, Meritz, Samsung and Kiwoom Securities.
The figure is down 20.3 percent from a year ago, but managed to climb more than threefold from the previous quarter's earnings of 156.3 billion won.
"Domestic securities firms enjoyed handsome earnings in the first quarter," said a Nomura Securities official.
"Their earnings peaked in the first quarter of last year, and then slid throughout the year along with the slump in Seoul stocks. They now seemed to hit rock bottom and are showing signs of recovery in the first quarter of this year."
Market analysts said their solid performances in investment banking and stock trading led to the earnings recovery.
"They displayed signs of recovery in their entire business sectors including retail, asset management and investment banking," said Samsung Securities researcher Chang Hyo-sun.
"Domestic securities firms sustained losses on the valuation of principal investments and equity linked securities in the previous quarter. The valuation has recovered this quarter. Their efforts to diversify their revenue sources also helped boost their earnings."
Of the five securities firms, Kiwoom Securities' Q1 net profit is estimated at 91.4 billion won, up 4.5 percent, the brokerage's highest earnings.
The market projection for Meritz Securities' Q1 earnings stood at 101.7 billion, a bit short of its record high of 114.2 billion won.
Mirae Asset Daewoo, Samsung Securities and Korea Investment & Securities are estimated to post a 126.9 billion won, 99.3 billion won and 154.2 billion won net profit, respectively.
NH Investment & Securities said in the regulatory filing last week that it posted its record high earnings of 171.6 billion won.
Hyundai Motor Securities also posted a record high net profit of 20.4 billion won, up 525 percent from the previous quarter.
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