CITIC Securities Co, China's largest broker by market value, said profit doubled in the first quarter.

Net income rose to 2.52 billion yuan (US$36 million), or 0.76 yuan per share, from 1.25 billion yuan, or 0.42 yuan per share, a year earlier, the Beijing-based company said yesterday in a statement e-mailed to Bloomberg News. Sales rose to 5.79 billion yuan from 3.34 billion yuan a year earlier.

CITIC Securities earned more after raising its ownership in China Asset Management Co and CITIC Fund Management in September. The firm is trying to cut its reliance on stock trading fees after China's benchmark index dropped as much as 44 percent from an October record.

"We are conservative about this sector at the moment," said Shi Yonghui, a Shenzhen-based fund manager with Da Cheng Fund Management Co, who sold all his CITIC Securities shares in the first quarter. "The brokerage industry is volatile and can't be measured by standard price-to-earnings valuation ratios."

Average combined daily stock trading volume on the Chinese mainland's two exchanges fell to 9.8 billion shares in the first quarter from 11.2 billion in 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

CITIC Securities' market value slumped 41 percent in the quarter, allowing Japan's Nomura Holdings Inc to reclaim the position as Asia's largest brokerage by that measure, a status it lost to CITIC last year.

Seeking to reverse the market slump, China last Wednesday cut stamp duty on trading stocks. The CSI 300 Index rallied 15 percent in three days, and CITIC Securities shares surged 26 percent.