BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- All 25 listed securities firms posted sharp falls in net profits for the January-June period, according to their half-year financial reports or preliminary earnings estimate filed with stock exchanges.

Guotai Junan Securities, an industry leader, saw its profits shrink 47.91 percent from a year ago, while Shanxi Securities registered the biggest drop of 84.93 percent.

Weighed on by a market downturn, brokerage incomes from submission fees and leverage financing fell substantially.

Chinese stocks remained bearish in the first half of the year with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index slumping more than 17 percent as market sentiment has yet to recover from a market crash last summer.

However, analysts said that the performance of brokerages started to improve in the second quarter and a mild recovery could be expected during the rest of the year.