South Korean futures companies' net profit more than doubled in the third quarter of this year from a year earlier on a rise in brokerage commission income, the financial watchdog said Thursday.

The combined earnings of six local futures companies came in at 2.6 billion won ($2.2 million) in the July-September period, compared with a profit of 1 billion won a year ago, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

The strong bottom line came as their fee income from futures dealings jumped 23.5 percent on-year to 28.9 billion won from 23.4 billion won, while their costs edged down 1.3 percent to 21.3 billion won from 21.6 billion won over the cited period.

The return on equity, an index measuring profitability, gained 0.4 percentage point to 0.6 percent from a year earlier.

Their average net capital ratio, a key barometer of financial soundness, stood at 547.1 percent as of end-September, down 7.1 percentage points from three months ago, mainly due to a decrease in risky assets, the watchdog said. (Yonhap)