South Korean brokerage houses saw their net income almost triple in the third quarter from three months earlier on a rise in bond investment derived from low interest rates, the financial watchdog said Tuesday.

The combined net profit of 59 local securities firms came to 814.5 billion won ($749 million) in the July-September period, compared with 276.3 billion won the previous quarter, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

For the first nine months of the year, the net income totaled 1.4 trillion won.

The strong third-quarter performance came as the securities firms earned 1.94 trillion won from bond transactions on a low interest rate trend, up from 1.5 trillion won over the cited period. (Yonhap)