(Yicai Global) April 10 -- Chinese futures brokerages are diversifying into other areas, such as risk management, wealth management and offshore financial services, as the lackluster futures’ market results in sliding revenue, market insiders told Yicai Global.

Nanhua Futures managed a 1 percent uptick in profit in 2022 from the year before to CNY246 million (USD35.7 million), but revenue sank 35.1 percent to CNY6.8 billion, according to its latest annual report. The Hangzhou-based firm has branched out into other areas. Its revenue from wealth management jumped 62.2 percent to CNY60.6 million (USD8.8 million), while that from overseas financial services doubled to CNY231 million.

China's futures and options market suffered a 9.9 percent decline in trading volume and an 8 percent fall in turnover last year, said Wang Jun, director of research institute Founder CIFCO Futures. The 16 new futures and options products that were introduced last year failed to offset the slowdown in transactions of existing ones, he added. 

Of the other two futures firms to have released their financial results for 2022 so far, Holly Futures posted a 84.6 percent dive in net profit to CNY12.4 million (USD1.8 million), while revenue slumped 6.8 percent to CNY1.5 billion (USD218.2 million). And Ruida Futures posted a 41.7 percent plunge in net profit to CNY294 million (USD42.8 million) and revenue dipped 1 percent to CNY2.1 billion.

Nationwide, the country’s 150 futures firms reported a 19.8 percent drop in net profit in 2022 from the year before to CNY11 billion (USD1.6 billion) while revenue tumbled 18.8 percent to CNY40.2 billion (USD5.8 billion), according to data from the China Futures Association.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor