South Korean brokerage houses turned to net profit in the first quarter of this year from three months earlier, snapping two straight quarterly net loss as returns on bond investments increased while sale costs dropped, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said Thursday. The combined net profit of 61 local securities firms came to 355.1 billion won (US$345.7 million) in the January-March period, a turnaround from a net loss of 282.8 billion won three months ago, according to the watchdog.