Contrarian investing may hold true for brokerages in Seoul

South Korean brokerage houses, hit by a decline in stock turnover and a bearish run on the local stock market, have been trading near yearly lows, but going against the investor crowd may hold true for the ugly duckling shares, analysts said Friday. Shares of major brokerage houses led by Samsung Securities and Woori Investment Securities have been on a downhill road with the a subindex gauging the sector's share prices dropping more than 17 percent since the end of 2012, as investors bet that they would continue to brace for a decline in earnings. In particular, their share prices have been sagging since mid-November when the country's financial regulator lifted a short-selling ban on financial shares.