Chicago-based Harris spent about 65 billion yen (US$540 million) to buy 49.2 million shares in Nikko between Dec. 25 and Jan. 30, according to a report it submitted on Monday to the Kanto Finance Bureau, a branch of Japan's Finance Ministry. Domestic asset managers have been dumping Nikko's stock on fears that accounting problems at the brokerage could cost it its Tokyo Stock Exchange listing, but some risk-hungry foreign investors have seized on the price fall as a chance to buy. Harris, which is owned by French institutional money management group IXIS Asset Management, bought the shares at an average price of 1,321 yen apiece, the filing showed.