Nomura's capital has been depleted by soured investments and costs related to its acquisition of the Asian, European and Middle East operations of failed US investment bank Lehman Brothers last year.

Nomura said in a statement on Friday that it has registered to issue up to 300 billion yen ($3.3 billion) in stock over a period of one year from February 19, in what would be its first offering of new shares in 20 years.

At Friday's closing price, the new share issue would boost the number of outstanding shares in Nomura by 27 per cent.

"Looking at the examples of other companies, there is still some downside risk to its share price, in our view, but this announcement to increase capital by issuing common shares may be the last piece of bad news," Credit Suisse analyst Azuma Ohno said in a report to clients.

Nomura aimed to use the Lehman operations that it bought as a platform to expand outside its mature home market and compete head-to-head with the leading Western investment banks.

But Nomura has had to pay large sums to keep Lehman talent and absorb other costs just as the financial crisis tears through all of its major businesses. Last month it posted a record quarterly loss of 342.9 billion yen.

Shares of Nomura were down 9.8 per cent at 516 yen as of 0956 GMT after falling as far as 511 yen, the lowest since November 1982. The benchmark Nikkei average .N225 rose 1.8 per cent.