Sixteen of Japan's top 20 brokerages suffered net losses or year-on-year declines in net profit last quarter, hit by the March 11 disaster's impact on the stock and bond markets.

Daily turnover on the Tokyo Stock Exchange came to 1.38 trillion yen in the April-June period, down 17% from a year earlier, as investors took to the sidelines.

In addition to lower revenues from stock-trading commissions, the brokerages earned less in underwriting fees as equity financing slowed considerably as well.

New-share offerings by Japanese companies plunged 57% in value terms on the year. Their bond issuances also fell, by 32%.

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. (8601) reported Friday a 9.4 billion yen group net loss for the period, marking a second consecutive quarter of net losses. A year earlier, it had recorded a group net loss of 1.1 billion yen.

Retail brokerage unit Daiwa Securities Co. generated a 7.1 billion yen net profit. But Daiwa Securities Capital Markets Co., which handles business clients, ended the quarter 18.4 billion yen in the red.

To turn itself around, Daiwa Securities Group aims to cut costs by merging the two units and shifting some personnel from the business client section to the retail brokerage operations.

Nomura Holdings Inc.'s (8604) earnings announcement Friday was more upbeat, with group net profit soaring 7.7-fold to 17.7 billion yen.

Its wholesale section sank into the red for the first time in four quarters, with a net loss of 14.8 billion yen. But this was more than offset by strong demand for investment trusts from individuals and the robust performance of the asset management segment.

In addition, turning Nomura Land & Building Co. into a wholly owned unit gave the Nomura group's pretax profit a 24.3 billion yen boost.

The group aims to reduce annual costs in its business client operations by 400 million dollars, or roughly 3.2 billion yen, within the next two years. At a news conference Friday, Chief Financial Officer Junko Nakagawa did not rule out cuts to the payroll.

With daily stock-trading turnover falling further in July, other brokerages will also likely have to lower operating costs by shrinking payrolls and taking other steps while diversifying sources of revenue. Read More