Tokyo - Nomura Holdings Inc, Japan's largest brokerage house, was hit hard by the global financial crisis, reporting losses of 149.4 billion yen (1.57 billion dollars) for the first half of the business year on Tuesday.
During the same period last year, Nomura posted profits of 64.2 billion yen. Japan's business year ends on March 31.
It was the third quarterly loss for the company, which took over the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and European operations of failed US brokerage Lehman Brothers last month.
In the quarter from July to September, Nomura's reported net loss widened to 72.9 billion yen, compared with a net loss of 11.7 billion yen the previous year.