Major Japanese securities houses are likely to report sharp profit falls for the just-ended fiscal first half, because plummeting stock prices have dampened trading, especially by individuals, industry officials said Thursday.

Second-tier brokerages are expected to book huge losses for the April-September period, they said.

Nomura Securities Co.'s consolidated pretax profit in the July-September quarter fell short of the 36.6 billion yen it chalked up in the preceding quarter.

As a result, the biggest Japanese brokerage's group pretax profit in the fiscal first half is believed to have fallen sharply from the 219.19 billion yen registered a year earlier.

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. is said to have fallen into a pretax loss in the July-September period after posting a profit of 10.5 billion yen in the April-June quarter.

Nikko Securities Co. scored a profit in the July-September period slightly larger than the 7.3 billion yen in the preceding quarter.

Among second-tier brokerages, Kokusai Securities Co. incurred a huge group pretax loss in the fiscal first half because earnings from deals with corporate investors declined as a result of a temporary ban slapped by authorities on its operations in June for violation of the Securities and Exchange Law, the officials said.

Pretax losses of billions of yen appear unavoidable for Tsubasa Securities Co., Tokai Tokyo Securities Co. and Mizuho Investors Securities Co.