Citic Securities warns of crashing net

Shenzhen-based Citic Securities, China's sole listed broker, warned first-half net earnings would shrink by more than 50%, an indication, analysts said, of the industry's over-reliance on trading commissions. The news pushed the broker's share price down 5.9% by the day's close, to US$0.83. One analyst said the situation was unlikely to improve until the Shanghai market pulled itself out of the doldrums and prospects of that happening this year were slight. The Shanghai Composite fell 21% in April alone on concerns of credit curbs since put into effect. In 2003, Citic Securities reported a net profit of US$44 million.