Nomura has laid bare the damage wreaked by plunging liquidity and Japan’s negative rate move on its fixed-income business and wider wholesale unit, posting a first quarterly loss in almost four years that wiped out profit growth over the previous nine months.

Pre-tax profits at Nomura's wholesale division, which comprises its trading and traditional investment banking businesses, had been 35% higher than the previous year at the nine-month stage of the Japanese bank's 2015/2016 fiscal year, which ends on March 31. But trading conditions since the start of 2016 have wiped out that growth.