Tokyo: Nomura Holdings Inc, Japan’s largest brokerage, said first-quarter profit fell nearly a third as customers held onto savings rather than bet on assets like stocks and bonds, hit by uncertain global markets and negative interest rates. The brokerage said on Thursday its April-June net profit slid to 46.8 billion yen ($447 million) from the same period a year ago. The biggest single factor: an 83 percent slump in pretax profit from its retail business. Nomura was reporting earnings for the first time since April’s big job cuts in overseas businesses, long a drag on earnings. Those cost cuts helped catapult overseas businesses to a healthy first-quarter profit.