Pre-tax losses at Nomura’s global markets arm more than trebled in the six months to September on the back of the financial market turmoil, prompting Moody’s Investors Service to cut the Japanese bank’s rating outlook and warn its acquisition of parts of Lehman Brothers could further pressure profitability.

Nomura, which has taken over Lehman's Asia-Pacific business as well as the collapsed Wall Street bank's European equity and investment banking business, revealed today that losses at its global markets unit ballooned to ¥148.3bn (€1.3bn) in the fiscal first half to the end of September, from ¥41.6bn in the same period last year.