The Japanese mega-bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Friday reported a 42.07 billion yen net loss for the first three quarters of the financial year - a virtual nosedive from its previous year's 314.66 billion yen profit!

The bank's acquisition of a large part of the troubled Morgan Stanley led it to a loss of 326 billion yen, due to declining share prices, and 179 billion yen on securitized products and associated investments.

For the quarter October-December, the bank reported a group net loss of 134.1 billion yen - as against the earlier-year profit of 57.9 billion yen - its first net loss since its foundation in late 2005.

The bank, which has been hit hard by losses on its stock holdings and deep bad-loan costs, has also cut its outlook for the full year - from its earlier projection of 220 billion yen to 50 billion yen.

The slashed forecast by the top Japanese bank is quite comparable to the 178.5 billion yen average estimate of 12 analysts polled by Reuters Estimates, and it indicates a massive 92 percent slip from the year-before results.

With reference to Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group's profit and loss statement, Ismael Pili, a bank analyst at Tokyo's Macquarie Capital Securities, said: "The news of the day, the flavor of the month or the flavor of the moment is about equity losses on the bank's P&L!"