Japan's financial watchdog said Thursday it has ordered a unit of Nomura Securities Co., the country's largest brokerage, to suspend part of its operations for two months from Jan. 9 as punishment for trading securities on behalf of foreign clients without contracts.

Operations subject to the two-month suspension at Nomura Asset Management Co. include deals with foreign clients, but the company will still be allowed to do business with domestic clients, the Financial Services Agency said.

The FSA said alleges Nomura Asset Management Co. illegally carried out such securities trading more than 200 times for about three years from April 1997.