Nomura fires 25

Nomura today confirmed that it has sacked approximately 25 traders and salesmen in the bank's London-based fixed income and capital markets divisions.

Nomura employs 500 people in its global markets group in London. A spokeswoman refused to comment on who was fired or in which areas of the business they worked.

The news came as Nomura announced its highest half-year revenues in global investment banking since March 2002.

Global markets made a pre-tax profit of 31.5bn (€225m) in the second quarter which ended on September 30, against a loss of 700m in the previous quarter.

Pre-tax income was up 320% at 9.1bn in the second quarter compared with the first quarter.

The Japanese bank said the group's quarter-on-quarter revenues grew 33% to 338bn, while pre-tax income rose 283% to 117.6bn.