The Japanese investment bank’s global markets business posted strong revenue growth in both fixed income and equities on the back of US derivatives business and an ‘uptick in client activity’.

Profit for the April to June period came in at JPY55.8 billion (US$520.87 million), up more than 10 times from JPY5.2 billion posted a year earlier.

The wholesale division, which includes the global markets and investment banking businesses, posted JPY20 billion in pre-tax profit in the first quarter of the company’s fiscal year ending in March 2020. Nomura suffered an over JPY7 billion loss in the same period a year ago.

The rise in revenues in the wholesale segment came despite a decline in investment banking revenues .Global markets posted a20% increase from the previous year to reach JPY135.7 billion.

US fixed income revenues were at their ‘highest in 10 quarters,’ while ‘derivatives had a strong quarter’ on the back of a rise in client activity that boosted equities revenues.

The better-than-expected results in the first quarter come after Japan’s top brokerage said it would cut US$1 billion in costs from its struggling wholesale business. As part of this, Nomura has laid out plans to scale back its emerging markets and G-10 rates trading, foreign exchange as well as flow-credit trading businesses.

Nomura has failed to put its name in the top 10 issuer list with the biggest market shares in Japan for the structured products business in the past five years. The last time the bank showed up in these rankings was in 2013, according to SRP data.

During the April to June period this year, Nomura only issued three products that with a combined sales volume of US$108.7 million.

The largest issuer during the April to June period this year in Japan was Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International. It had a market share of over 12%. Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities was also the biggest distributor with a market share of 16.9%.

Nomura released its financial results for the first quarter ending in March 2020 on July 31. Click the link to view the full presentation.