CCB International Securities Ltd plans to expand its research team by as much as 40 percent to meet rising demand for analysis, the Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.

The unit of China Construction Bank Corp may hire as many as 20 people this year in the mainland and Hong Kong, the report quoted Timothy Sun, managing director and co-head of research at the brokerage, as saying. That's after an expansion last year that took staff strength to 50 from 10, he said.

"The recent decline in the market will not scale back hiring at CCBI's research team,

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"Short-term volatility in the market will not deter its goal to establish one of the strongest research teams in the market," Sun said.

Customers in Australia, Singapore and the Middle East are demanding more analysis and trips into China, according to Sun. There's also increasing interest from Chinese fund managers under the qualified domestic institutional investor, or QDII, program, he said.

UBS aims to double its workforce in China to as many as 1,200 people over the next five years, the report cited Yoon Chi-Won, the co-head of the company's Asia-Pacific unit, as saying.