(Adds details of results)
BEIJING, April 27 (Reuters) - China’s biggest brokerage, CITIC Securities Co Ltd , reported on Friday a 17 percent rise in first-quarter profit, as cuts in non-operating expenses offset declining investment returns and fee income.
Net profit for January through March rose to 2.69 billion yuan ($424.24 million) from 2.30 billion yuan a year earlier, the company said in a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange.
Over the same period, investment income dropped 87 percent to 231.6 million yuan from 1.8 billion yuan a year earlier.
Net fee and commission income declined 1 percent to 4.48 billion yuan from 4.54 billion yuan a year earlier.
However, profits were bolstered by a 96 percent cut in non-operating expenses from a year earlier.
For the full-year of 2017, CITIC reported a 10.3 percent rise in net profit to 11.43 billion yuan.
$1 = 6.3408 Chinese yuan Reporting by Shu Zhang and Matthew Miller; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Neil Fullick