Why is CITIC Securities stock sliding today?

CITIC Securities Co Ltd stock fell 2.4% to HK$20.62 on Tuesday after the company clocked a bigger-than-expected drop in its third-quarter earnings.

Citic said net profit for the three months ending September 30 fell 20.2% to 7.68 billion yuan ($1.15 billion), missing Reuters/LSEG estimates of 10.05 billion yuan.

The broker’s investment income dropped 45.25% to 17.978 billion yuan in the first nine months of the year.

The pressure on CITIC Securities was not isolated: across the Chinese brokerage sector, eight of nine listed securities firms that reported Q3 results saw earnings decline, reflecting a broad industry-level squeeze tied to the same equity market headwinds.

Chinese markets slumped in the third quarter, hit by a sharp reversal artificial intelligence valuations. Retail trading volumes also remained largely depressed amid continued weakness in household spending.

Citic fell past a 0.5% gain in the Hang Seng index on Tuesday.