Nomura¡¯s profit fell last quarter as a loss in Europe and one-time costs tied to a major acquisition overshadowed revenue growth in wealth management and equities trading.

Net income slid 9.7% from a year earlier to ?91.6 billion ($595 million) in the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31, Japan¡¯s biggest brokerage said in a statement Friday. The company announced a share buyback.

Chief Executive Officer Kentaro Okuda is seeking to extend the momentum that led to record profit last year, as financial firms compete to capitalize on Japan¡¯s market swings and investing boom. Brokerages are finding a role helping clients navigate volatile bond and currency markets at a time of mounting concerns over the direction of Japan¡¯s fiscal policy.

Last quarter¡¯s results missed the ?95.1 billion average of four analyst estimates. Still, net income totaled ?288.2 billion for the nine months, putting Nomura on course to beat the previous fiscal year¡¯s all-time-high of ?340.7 billion.

The results were marred by one-time costs tied to the company¡¯s $1.8 billion purchase of a Macquarie Group asset manager, along with expenses associated with changes to a compensation scheme. Parts of both will also be booked in the current quarter, Chief Financial Officer Hiroyuki Moriuchi said at a news briefing in Tokyo.

There were also losses in the crypto asset business, he said. Nomura has a crypto subsidiary in Switzerland.

¡°But overall we see this as a positive quarter, with our earning power steadily improving step by step,¡± Moriuchi said.

Nomura said it plans to buy back as much as ?60 billion of shares, or 3.2% of its outstanding stock.

The Tokyo-based firm joined Wall Street banks including Goldman Sachs in posting strong gains from equity-market transactions. Nomura¡¯s revenue from stock trading rose 21% from a year earlier, the 11th consecutive quarter of growth.

¡°Although there were some one-off expenses, the results showed that the company¡¯s core businesses ¡ª such as wealth management and wholesale ¡ª were stronger and more solid than the market had expected,¡± said Hideyasu Ban, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

Its bond traders didn¡¯t fare so well, with revenue from fixed income slipping 2%. Renewed anxiety over Japan¡¯s fiscal health kept the country¡¯s government bond market on edge, fueling upward pressure on super-long interest rates.

Overall global markets revenue rose 7%, marking the ninth straight quarter of expansion. The division generates a little less than half of Nomura¡¯s revenue.

On the investment banking side, revenue gained 11%, extending its growth streak to the 11th quarter. Debt and equity underwriting fees fell from a year ago, while those for mergers and acquisitions advice rose.

Revenue from the wealth management business rose 19%.

Nomura¡¯s operations outside Japan earned ?16.3...