People watch the performance of the world's first asphalt futures product in the Shanghai Futures Exchange on October 9, 2013. Photo: CFP

UBS AG said its Chinese securities unit has agreed to buy a majority stake in a Chinese futures broker, hoping to profit from an increase in trading of the financial products as China seeks to encourage their use.

UBS Securities Co Ltd will inject 90 million yuan ($14.8 million) into Shanghai Pumin Futures Brokerage Co Ltd, giving the Swiss bank a 95.42 percent stake in Pumin Futures, the bank said in a statement on Monday.

Chinese regulators have implemented a series of administrative rules for futures trading, but the lack of a legal foundation has hindered the development of futures, China's National People's Congress said in its December announcement on drafting laws for the futures market.

China launched its Hushen 300 Index in April 2010 after a three-year trial in which brokers could practice trading the contracts.

That development added the first futures contract whose underlying product was financial, to the existing pool of commodities-based futures.

Those products are traded on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, Dalian Commodity Exchange and Shanghai Futures Exchange. A fourth exchange, the Shanghai Financial Futures Exchange, was established in 2006.

Foreign investment in Chinese futures brokers has been limited in the past by regulatory barriers.

Galaxy Futures Co Ltd, CITIC Newedge Futures Co Ltd and JP Morgan Futures Co Ltd were the only Chinese futures firms with foreign investors, Beijing-based Caixin magazine reported in May 2012.

Trading volume of financial futures, including the Hushen 300 Index and newly introduced treasury futures, reached 141 trillion yuan in 2013, UBS Securities said in its statement.