By Wang Lan (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-30 09:31

The general credit status for the mainland securities industry in 2008 has been rated higher, aided by continued national economic growth and the expanding scale of financial markets, according to the ratings outlook on the mainland securities industry released yesterday by China Chengxin International Credit Rating Co.

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"The widely recognized urgent need to increase the portion of direct financing in the national economy also helped drive the development of the securities industry, in a bid to establish a capital market with diversified investment instruments in China," said Li Li, general manager of financial institution rating at China Chengxin.

Despite the great potential for China's securities industry to make further progress in 2008, the outlook report also warned of negative factors impeding the industry's growth.

According to the report, the hefty increase in earnings of securities companies in the past two years came largely with a heavy reliance on the brokerage business, which has been tightly pegged to the performance of the stock market.

"A volatile stock market may pose risks to the securities companies' earnings," said Yang Dan, senior analyst on financial institution rating at China Chengxin.

"Chinese securities companies should shift focus to other businesses including investment banking and asset management, which are conducive to stabilizing company earning levels and strengthening the companies' edge in the fiercely competitive market."