* Unit hit by losses in bond business (Recasts, adds detail)
TOKYO, April 1 (Reuters) - A brokerage unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is likely to post a net loss of 50 billion yen ($600 million) for the year ended in March, dragged down by losses in its bond business, the Nikkei daily reported on its website on Friday.
Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Holdings is expected to suffer the loss as profits in some areas are negated by 80 billion in impairment losses at the bond operations of its Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Co subsidiary, the Nikkei said.
Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley is one of the securities joint ventures formed between MUFG and Morgan Stanley after Japan's largest lender acquired a 21 percent stake in the Wall Street firm for $9 billion in 2008.
To help shore up its financial base, Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley is also considering raising funds by issuing new shares to its parent Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Holdings, the paper said, without citing sources.
Hiroaki Konishi, a spokesman for Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley, declined to comment, adding that the company was still working on the numbers for the business year just ended.
For the year ended in March, MUFG has forecast a net profit of 500 billion yen. ($1 = 83.160 Japanese Yen) (Reporting by Mariko Katsumura and Junko Fujita; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Joseph Radford)