Citic ranks 4th-largest securities firms worldwide

Citic Securities<600030> is now the world's fourth largest securities company with a market capitalization of US$40.7 billion, while China's Haitong Securities<600837> is ranked in the eighth position with US$22.1 billion. Only Goldman, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch remain ahead of Citic.

Taking into account global banks with securities arms, Citic ranks the eighth behind Citigroup Inc, JP Morgan, Chase & Co, a Zurich-based UBS AG and the Credit Suisse Group.

Growing by more than threefold this year, Citic Securities is currently the fastest-growing brokerage firm in the world, fueled by the booming Chinese stock market. The company was founded 12 years ago. After years of development, it has now overtaken Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, Bear Stearns Cos and Charles Schwab Corp, by US$8.8 billion, US$24.4 billion and US$16.4 billion respectively, in terms of market capitalization.

China's benchmark CSI 300 Index soared 163% in 2007. A total of 46 million trading accounts had been opened in China this year, which enlarged the number of total accounts opened to 125 million, nine times the amount obtained in the previous year.

Price of Citic's share rose 3.2% in Shanghai on Wednesday, while Haitong<600837> jumped 9.5%.