Japan’s Nomura Q2 net profit doubles on solid domestic businesses

TOKYO (Reuters) -Nomura Holdings, Japan’s biggest brokerage and investment bank, on Friday reported second-quarter net profit doubled, driven by a surge in equity offerings in a strong domestic stock market.

July-September profit came in at 35.2 billion yen ($234.51 million), up from 16.8 billion yen a year earlier when a sharp downturn in global financial markets battered its asset management and investment banking businesses.

While lethargic dealmaking and sluggish trading continued to suppress profits overseas, Nomura benefited from its dominant position in Japan, where the stock market is trading at 33-year highs and equity offerings are surging.

Japan’s mergers and acquisitions market is also standing out against a worldwide decline this year as rising costs, stricter governance rules and shareholder pressure force companies to explore strategic options.

Meanwhile, fixed-income trading sagged as dealflow took a hit when geopolitical risk rose and the Federal Reserve aggressively raised interest rates.

The domestic retail division’s profit grew five-fold as an end to a long period of deflation and a corporate drive for better capital use continued to whet investor appetite for Japanese stocks.

Nomura is reallocating more bankers to wealth management to better serve rich families and entrepreneurs, at a time when some online brokerage houses such as SBI Securities are scrapping commission fees for domestic stock trading.

($1 = 150.1000 yen)