South Korea's investment advisory companies saw their earnings soar 173 percent in the first half of fiscal 2014 from a year earlier due to a rise in returns from equity investments, the financial watchdog said Thursday.
   
The combined net profit of 166 local and foreign investment advisers reached 51.6 billion won (US$46.5 million) between April and September, compared with 18.9 billion won in the same period last year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS).

The firms close their books on March 31.
   
An investment advisory firm provides more individual- or group-tailored management services than mutual funds.
   
These firms earned 43.2 billion won from stock investments over the six-month period, up 84.6 percent from 23.4 billion won a year ago, FSS figures showed.
   
Their commission income also increased 20.7 percent on-year to 75.8 billion won from 62.8 billion won.
   
The top 10 advisory firms led the performance, posting a combined net profit of 38.5 billion won in the April-September period, accounting for 74 percent of the total net profit.
   
The number of loss-making firms was 79, down 10 from the previous year, the FSS said. 
   
The return on equity (ROE), a main gauge of profitability, rose 10.2 percentage points to 16.8 percent as of end-September.
   
Their assets under management rose 29.9 percent on-year to 27.4 trillion won over the cited period from 21.1 trillion won, the watchdog said. (Yonhap)