Major asset management companies in South Korea saw their earnings soar more than 40 percent in 2020 amid a bullish stock market, data showed Wednesday.

The combined net income of the country's 10 leading asset managers came to 381.6 billion won ($346 million) last year, up 44 percent from a year earlier, according to their annual earnings reports.

Their total operating income stood at 422.5 billion won, up 10.7 percent from the previous year.

The figure doesn't include earnings of Kiwoom Asset Management Co. that has yet to put out its 2020 report.

Market watchers attributed the jump in their earnings to the bullish run of the South Korean stock market despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Mirae Asset Global Investments saw its net profit spike 95.8 percent on-year to 256.3 billion won, which accounted for 50.7 percent of the total.

Samsung Asset Management, the asset management arm of top conglomerate Samsung Group, came next with 70.7 billion won, which was up 30.7 percent from a year earlier. (Yonhap)