Kabu, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFJ), released preliminary financial results for May of 2018 today. The retail broker saw a respectable level of growth across its three main business lines last month.

Kabu was able to increase its total revenue for May to ¥1.68 billion ($15.25 million). This represented just under four percent in month-on-month growth.

This growth was due in large part to an increase in brokerage commissions. In April of this year, Kabu raked in a total of ¥594 million ($5.38 million) from brokerage commissions. Last month, the Japanese firm was able to increase that figure to ¥649 million ($5.88 million).

This growth was largely down to an increase in Equities trading. The slight uptick in client trading meant that commissions from equities trading grew by 15 percent in May to ¥365 million ($3.31 million).

Acceptance fees up, Volatility down

Kabu also saw growth in the business area that has been its biggest money maker for the past several months - acceptance fees. In April, the firm finished the month with ¥740 million ($6.71 million) in revenue from acceptance fees. At the end of May, this number had increased to ¥791 million ($7.17 million), a seven percent increase.

Despite the undoubtedly positive increases in revenue, Kabu is still in something of a slump. Revenues steadily decreased from January up until April. Last month saw a slight recovery, but total revenues were still almost 20 percent lower than they were in January.

The reason for this appears to have been a burst of investor enthusiasm, particularly in Japanese markets, in the first quarter of this year. This was driven by increased volatility and enabled retail brokers to perform particularly well in the FX markets.