Brokerage giant Nomura Holdings Inc. said Friday its group pretax profits for the April-June quarter plunged 65.3 percent from a year earlier to 18.37 billion yen.

Nomura attributed the decline to a drop in stock brokerage commissions.

Although group net profits rose 350.8 percent to 117.85 billion yen, the gains came mostly through accounting method revisions, Nomura said.

In a consolidated earnings report based on U.S. accounting standards, Nomura posted revenues of 216.97 billion yen, down 53.9 percent.

Its group net profits per share stood at 59.95 yen in the reporting quarter, up sharply from 13.32 yen the previous year.

Nomura said stock brokerage fees, a key source of revenue, fell 7 percent to 26.7 billion yen in the April-June period. Retail stock brokerage commissions dropped 18.5 percent to 16.3 billion yen.

Income from equity trading plummeted 34 percent to 18.5 billion yen, while income from bond trading fell 47 percent to 19.2 billion yen.

Nikko chalks up profit

Nikko Cordial Corp. chalked up a consolidated profit on cost reductions in the first quarter despite a double-digit fall in operating revenues, according to results released Friday.

The brokerage house said it registered 67.74 billion yen in group operating revenues for the April-June period, down 22 percent from a year earlier. It blamed the fall on the slump in the stock market.

Brokerage commissions earned on equities decreased 30.1 percent to 16.37 billion yen, while those on bonds totaled 438 million yen, down 19.4 percent.

Underwriting and selling commissions decreased 46.8 percent to 3.40 billion yen -- 1.96 billion yen on equities, down 40.2 percent, and 1.44 billion yen on bonds, down 53.7 percent.

By cutting sales and administrative expenses by 17.3 percent to 55.70 billion yen, Nikko Cordial managed to post a consolidated pretax profit of 6.84 billion yen, down 7.5 percent.

The company also reported a group net profit of 1.89 billion yen, up 33.3 percent.

In the 2001 business year, which ended in March, Nikko Cordial registered a consolidated pretax profit of 1.53 billion yen but a net loss of 66.36 billion yen on group operating revenues of 288.32 billion yen.