Matsui Securities Co., a leading online securities house, said Thursday it had defied the overall stock market slump in fiscal 2001, boosting its consolidated net profits by 20.7 percent to 1.87 billion yen.
Matsui attributed this substantial profit increase to "innovative" services -- such as lower brokerage commissions -- aimed at capitalizing on an increase in online stock trading by individual investors.
The firm's net profits per share in fiscal 2001 came to 24.56 yen, down from 114.77 yen, as a result of new share issues.
Matsui became the first online brokerage to be listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Aug. 1.
It also reported consolidated pretax profits of 3.94 billion yen, up 31.3 percent.
Its group operating revenues rose 58.2 percent to 12.79 billion yen.
The latter total includes 9.54 billion yen in brokerage commission revenues, up 48.3 percent, generated as a result of an increase in the number of customer accounts.