China's Citic Securities said Tuesday its net profit is likely to soar by more than 5.5 times in the first half of the year from a year earlier.

The nation's largest listed brokerage said in a statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange that the heavy transactions on the booming stock market have resulted in huge increases in its turnover.

Citic Securities' net profit hit 627.6 million yuan (US$ 82.9 million), or 0.21 yuan per share, in the first six month of last year.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index opened at 4,238.32 points on Tuesday, 0.59 percent higher from the previous close. Heavy investor fund inflows has pushed the index up 58 percent since the beginning of the year on a 130-percent increase last year.

By Friday, 50 securities brokerages, half of the nation's total, have announced their interim earnings. Their combined interim earnings surged 411 percent year-on-year to 41.77 billion yuan (US$ 5.5 billion) in the first six months, the Shanghai Securities News reported on Saturday.

First half net income of the Shanghai-based Guotai Junan Securities hit 3.92 billion yuan (US$ 517.7 million), the largest among the 50 firms, followed by 3.14 billion yuan of Guangfa Securities and 2.98 billion yuan of Shenyin Wanguo Securities.

(Xinhua News Agency July 24 2007)