Mitsubishi hits four-year low

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, Japan's biggest bank, posted its lowest quarterly profit in at least four years on losses related to stockholdings and increased bad-loan costs.

Net income fell 61 percent to 40.8 billion yen ($422 million) in the three months ended Sept 30 from 105.5 billion yen a year earlier. The second-quarter figure was derived by subtracting first-quarter results from half-year earnings published in a statement in Tokyo yesterday.

Mitsubishi UFJ plans to raise more than 900 billion yen in funds, the most of any Japanese lender, after securities losses eroded capital and it spent more than $14 billion investing in three companies in the past two months, including Morgan Stanley.