The nation's top listed securities house bought a 100 percent stake in the Shenzhen-based futures firm through the Beijing Equity Exchange, a bourse official and a CITIC Securities executive said yesterday.

Both persons declined to reveal how much CITIC Securities would pay for the holdings, noting an announcement was due late this month. The floor price for the stake was set at 33.24 million yuan (US$4.3 million).

China's stock regulator this month unveiled rules to allow brokers to earn commissions by introducing their clients to futures companies for financial derivative trading.

To qualify for the new business, stock firms must have at least 1.2 billion yuan in net capital and control a futures subsidiary, according to the regulations.

The threshold has prompted a slew of domestic brokerages seeking to buy controlling stakes in futures companies as they aim to participate in the index-futures business, set to debut in the first half.

CITIC Securities said this month its first-quarter profit was estimated to jump 12 fold to more than 1.2 billion yuan on a surge in brokerage commissions amid a stock market boom.

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