It reported a 101% increase in net profit.

Japan’s top brokerage and investment bank, Nomura Holdings, reported a 101 per cent increase in net profit on strong demand for equity offerings and mergers and acquisitions advisory services.

Nomura posted its seventh consecutive quarter of income growth as its wholesale division, which comprises its investment banking and global markets units, reinforced its comeback after several years of underperformance.

The company booked a healthy volume of commissions from mergers and acquisitions, while its equity capital markets business captured fees from companies’ disposals of their cross-shareholdings.

The global markets unit clocked a 39 per cent rise in net revenue compared with the same period in the previous year on growth in all overseas regions, and especially in equity derivatives products in the Americas.

Nomura’s results were dampened by its investment management division, which saw a 41 per cent drop in income on the previous quarter due to reduced valuation gain on an investment compared with the previous quarter.

However inflows to asset management products remained robust, helping the segment grow income 21 per cent year-on-year.

Nomura’s quarterly income was its highest since the first quarter of 2020 and follows strong performances last week from smaller rivals Daiwa and Mizuho Securities, which saw quarterly profit rise 64 per cent and 340 per cent, respectively.

Profit in the October-December period came in at 101.44 billion yen versus 50.55 billion yen a year earlier.