Nomura Holdings Inc. posted a second straight quarterly profit and resumed dividend payments as earnings from trading and investment banking increased.

Net income was ¥27.7 billion in the three months that ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of ¥72.9 billion a year earlier, Japan's largest brokerage said Wednesday. The average of five estimates from analysts was for second-quarter profit of ¥11.5 billion.

The 2008 acquisition of parts of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which resulted in a record loss last business year, helped Nomura take advantage of a recovery in trading and stock sales in the past six months. Chief Executive Kenichi Watanabe, who turned 57 on Wednesday, raised about $8 billion in stock sales this year to mend the company's balance sheet and challenge Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the United States.

"Nomura's earnings will keep improving as it can expect underwriting mandates for the third quarter and later," Azuma Ohno, a Tokyo-based analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG, said before the announcement. "It's important for the stock's performance to show results from the overseas expansion."

Nomura is the biggest arranger of equity and equity-linked sales in Asia-Pacific this year, up from eighth in 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Revenue rose to ¥355.5 billion for the quarter, from ¥128.1 billion a year earlier.

Brokerage commissions increased to ¥95.4 billion, up from ¥84.9 billion a year earlier, while investment banking fees jumped to ¥15.6 billion from ¥10 billion. Trading profit was ¥148.5 billion from a loss of ¥21 billion a year earlier.

Nomura announced Sept. 24 a second stock sale in six months, sending its shares tumbling 16 percent in a day. The company canceled its fourth-quarter payout in January.

It plans to use proceeds from the latest stock sale to expand investment banking and fixed income operations in the U.S.