Nomura Holdings, Japan's biggest brokerage and investment bank, reported a huge jump in fiscal first quarter profits compared with the same quarter a year ago.
In the April-June quarter, Nomura made a profit of 23.33 billion yen ($163.42 million), propelled by a strong Japanese stock market. In comparison, the profit in the same quarter a year ago was 1.696 billion yen.
Below Expectations
However, the jump in profits was below the expectation of the analysts due to factors like soft wholesale results and losses abroad.
While concerns over tepid global economic growth had forced investment portfolio writedowns across Japan last year, Nomura was helped this year by a renewed investor interest in Japanese stocks.
"We had a market tailwind ... The Bank of Japan's policy tweak, a rise in corporate action and a new tax exemption scheme for individual investors together are likely to keep the momentum going in the Japanese bond and stock markets," said Chief Financial Officer Takumi Kitamura, according to Reuters.
Losses Abroad
Nomura's overseas operations, mainly those in the Americas and Europe, reported a pretax loss of 23.9 billion yen. Though there was a 4 percent revenue drop at the wholesale division that comprises investment banking and trading, net revenue from the core retail division rose 29 percent. Revenues from the fixed income stream plunged 14 percent.
"It was a disappointing quarter given the strong markets in Japan and some rivals' better results," said Michael Makdad, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. in Tokyo, said, according to Bloomberg News.
