Top 50 Listed Brokers' Proprietary Income Hits RMB169.08 billion in H1 2026, Up 46.4%

The H1 2026 interim reports of listed brokers have been fully disclosed, with proprietary trading remaining the industry's largest revenue source. Wind data show that 50 listed brokers and broker-concept stocks generated combined proprietary income of approximately RMB169.08 billion in H1 2026, up about 46.4% from RMB115.47 billion in the same period of 2025. Proprietary income as a share of total revenue rose from about 19% in H1 2022 to 43.4% in H1 2026. Separately, 42 A-share brokers posted revenue of RMB363.783 billion and net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB155.154 billion, both up more than 40% year on year.

The top-tier proprietary trading landscape has shifted notably. CITIC Securities remained the industry leader with proprietary income of RMB25.633 billion, up 48.01% year on year, accounting for 51.58% of its total revenue. Guotai Haitong recorded proprietary income of RMB22.567 billion in H1 2026, surging 148.17% year on year, closely trailing CITIC Securities as the gap rapidly narrowed. China Merchants Securities and GF Securities both entered the RMB10 billion proprietary income tier, ranking third and fourth with RMB12.488 billion and RMB12.36 billion respectively, up 203.56% and 135.94% year on year. Huatai Securities ranked fifth with RMB9.987 billion. Among the top ten, CICC, CSC Financial, China Galaxy Securities, Shenwan Hongyuan, and Orient Securities ranked sixth to tenth with proprietary income of RMB9.659 billion, RMB8.157 billion, RMB7.694 billion, RMB6.973 billion, and RMB4.466 billion respectively.

Lower-tier institutions faced notable pressure. Guosheng Securities was the only listed broker with negative proprietary income, posting -RMB21 million in H1 2026, down 112.68% year on year. Guosen Securities also saw proprietary income decline about 20% year on year.

The high growth in proprietary trading during H1 was driven by two core factors: sustained expansion in market trading volume, which directly boosted broker market-making and client-driven trading revenue, and the AI and hard-tech theme rally, which rewarded equity proprietary positions in related sectors while a stable bond market underpinned fixed-income and FICC businesses. This also led to divergence in proprietary strategy profitability: brokers that captured the AI and hard-tech themes and benefited from sci-tech direct investment and equity listing gains performed strongly, while those sticking to single-style low-valuation, high-dividend, cyclical equity strategies faced clear pressure. Some brokers heavily weighted in low-valuation dividend sectors saw marked unrealized losses in equity holdings booked under other comprehensive income, an implicit drag on proprietary investment.

In 2026, the A-share market's new-share profit effect continued to unfold, with the hard-tech track central to IPO subscription gains. Wind data show that among the top ten new stocks since the registration system was implemented in 2019 with first-day per-lot floating gains exceeding RMB100,000, six were listed in 2026. Since the start of 2026, ten new stocks on the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets have seen first-day per-lot floating gains exceed RMB100,000: Pinzhun Laser, Lianxun Instruments, Unitree Robotics, Changjin Photonics, Zhenbao Technology, Chaochun Materials, Hengyunchang, Torrence, Dapu Micro, and Gaokai Technology, with seven on the STAR Market and three on the ChiNext. In per-lot gains, Pinzhun Laser ranked as the most profitable new stock since the registration system, with first-day floating gains of RMB556,600; Unitree Robotics ranked second at RMB474,600; and Muxi shares, listed in December 2025, ranked third with RMB395,200 per lot.

Amid the new-share feast, proprietary IPO subscription gains diverged sharply. Some brokers had low hit rates. Xiangcai Securities participated in pricing for nine high-yield new shares but only won Dapu Micro, with the rest excluded due to price deviations. Zhongtian Securities also bid on nine new shares, missing six. AVIC Securities bid on all ten high-yield new shares with a 50% hit rate, with the other five excluded for low bids—for example, it bid RMB69.80 per share for Lianxun Instruments, whose issue price was RMB81.88.

Participation in IPO subscription continued to heat up. Since 2026, the tech investment boom has spread from the secondary market to the primary market, with offline inquiry participants rising month by month. The number of valid inquiry objects increased from 7,862 in January to 9,575 in May, exceeding 10,000 in June. In July, new STAR Market listings saw an average of 11,100 valid offline inquiry objects, a monthly record high for the year.

Entering H2 2026, proprietary trading faces a key test. The July market correction was a critical turning point, with directional equity proprietary positions, thematic ETFs, and quantitative long strategies suffering the largest drawdowns amid external tech-sector volatility and domestic profit-taking, causing some brokers to give back a significant portion of earlier gains. In contrast, high-dividend dividend positions and fixed-income proprietary trading proved relatively resilient, offering some hedge. The broad high growth in listed brokers' H1 results fundamentally reflected a resonance between heightened capital-market activity and stronger proprietary investment performance. The market recovery kept average daily stock and fund turnover elevated, steadily boosting brokerage fee income; margin financing and other capital intermediary businesses expanded, generating substantial interest income. The equity market uptrend drove major improvements in proprietary investment returns, the core driver of this earnings growth. Additionally, under the full registration system, IPO and refinancing pace remained steady, keeping investment banking resilient; combined with steady expansion in asset management scale, multiple factors jointly drove a sharp rise in industry net profit.