GF SecuritiesCo. Ltd. expects a year-over-year decline in net profit for thefirst half ended June 30 as revenue from several of the company's businesseswas impacted by a downturn in the securities market.

The company said July 9 that it expects its first-half netprofit attributable to shareholders to fall between 51.47% and 53.84% to arange of 3.88 billion yuan to 4.08 billion yuan, compared to 8.41 billion yuanin the prior-year period.

EPS is forecast to decline to between 51 fen and 54 fen,from 1.30 yuan in the same period the prior year.

The company explained that during the first half, the totalamount of turnover of equity funds in the Shenzhen and Shanghai markets fell by52.89% year over year, affecting the revenue generated from the company'swealth management, trading and institutional client services businesses.

As of July 8, US$1 wasequivalent to 6.69 Chinese yuan.