* Nomura posts 1st profit in six quarters
* Nomura turns profit on underwriting, trading
* Shares end down 0.7 pct before results (Adds details, background)
TOKYO, July 29 (Reuters) - Nomura Holdings Inc, Japan's largest brokerage, posted its first profit in six quarters thanks to a surge in stock underwriting fees and trading income.
Japanese companies have dashed to sell shares to strengthen capital eroded during the financial crisis, and a swing in bond prices and yields has boosted fixed-income trading.
The brokerage also benefitted from an easing of the costs of its integration with Lehman Brothers. Nomura bought Lehman's Asian, European and Middle East operations last year, and suffered losses in the past quarters as it shouldered the costs to integrate the operations.
Nomura reported an 11.4 billion yen ($121 million) net profit in the April-June quarter, compared with 75.9 billion yen a year earlier, joining Goldman Sachs and other U.S. banks in posting profits in the latest quarter.
The result is better than a consensus estimate for a 25.5 billion yen loss in a survey of three analysts polled by Thomson Reuters but roughly in line with an estimate published earlier this week by the Nikkei newspaper.
Japanese companies sold $13.8 billion worth of shares in the April-June period, six times more than a year earlier, Thomson Reuters data shows.
Nomura was ranked as the No.1 equity underwriter in Japan, controlling 42.5 percent of the market, according to Thomson Reuters. Daiwa Securities SMBC, the investment banking unit of Daiwa Securities was a distant second with an 18.3 percent share.
Nomura's Lehman acquisitions might have paid off as the brokerage's standings outside Japan also improved in the latest quarter.
Nomura was ranked as the 29th equity underwriter in the U.S., where the brokerage was not even ranked a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters. It was the 24th underwriter in Asia excluding Australia in the latest quarter, up from the 54th position a year earlier.
Chief Operating Officer Takumi Shibata told Reuters earlier this month Nomura has also been boosting its equity trading businesses in Japan and Europe.
Nomura's market share at the Tokyo Stock Exchange is growing, while its market share in London went from "nowhere" in December to No. 3 in June, he said.
Before the results, Nomura shares ended Wednesday's trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange down 0.7 percent at 809 yen. (Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Valerie Lee)