The Financial Post reports in its Thursday, July 31, edition that Scotia Capital analyst Sumit Malhotra says investors should use any pullbacks in Canadian brokerage stocks as a buying opportunity as improving investment banking activity is set to buoy share prices. The Post's John Shmuel writes in the Trading Desk column that results from the big five brokers in the United States showed a big uptick in investment banking during the second quarter. Mr. Malhotra says Canadian brokers should see the same kind of improvement when they report next month. Mr. Malhotra, however, warns about trying to get in now. Mr. Malhotra says, "We think the strong numbers the brokers will report in the upcoming results are largely 'in the stocks," and as such would look at a pullback as an opportunity to get more bullish on Canaccord Genuity ($13.08) and GMP [Capital] shares heading into what we expect will be a resumption of strong investment banking activity in the fall." Both stocks have had a strong run this year -- Canaccord Genuity is up 87 per cent, while GMP is up 14 per cent. Mr. Malhotra says there is still a lot of upside potential as brokers tend to do well in the current economic climate.