BEIJING-- China's listed securities firms reported a 70-percent drop in net profits in August compared to the previous month amid bearish stock markets and weak trading.

The 17 listed securities firms reported combined net profits of 487 million yuan ($76.1 million) last month, down 70.3 percent from July, the Shanghai Securities News reported Saturday.

Their total revenues also dropped 30.5 percent to 2.45 billion yuan in August.

Four of the companies reported losses. Northeast Securities suffered the greatest loss of 54 million yuan, followed by 48.6 million yuan of Southwest Securities. The other two companies were Pacific Securities and Sealand Securities, which reported losses of 2.6 million yuan and 15.6 million yuan, respectively.

The profit slide and losses came as the domestic stock markets plunged by a whopping 4.97 percent in the month with stock trading totaling 3.7 trillion yuan, averaging 160.8 billion yuan on a daily basis, down 25.3 percent year on year.

However, four other firms saw profit rises. Industrial Securities' net profits rose the most by 251.5 percent, followed by the 141.6-percent rise of Everbright Securities.