Foreign buying of Japan stocks slows in Sept-TSE
Thu Oct 6, 2005
TOKYO, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Foreigners slowed their net buying of Japanese shares in September to $13.3 billion from a record high a month earlier, possibly a sign their active buying, which has helped send the Tokyo market to four-year highs, is peaking.
They bought a net 1.52 trillion yen of Japanese stocks on the Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya exchanges last month, Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) data showed on Thursday. That was down from a net 1.96 trillion yen ($17.17 billion) in August.
Foreign buying has picked up markedly since both the Bank of Japan and government in early August upgraded their assessment of the economy, based on healthy capital spending and firming domestic consumption.
High expectations ahead of reformist Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's crushing victory in a general election on Sept. 11 also brought foreigners into the market.
Last month, foreign net buying helped to push the Nikkei share average up 9.4 percent to 13,574.30, its biggest percentage jump since March 1999.
The Nikkei rose further and hit a four-year closing high of 13,738.84 on Oct. 4. As of Thursday's close, it was at 13,359.51.
Tokyo Stock Exchange data also showed that foreign investors bought a net 490.55 billion yen of stocks on the three exchanges last week, marking their 16th straight week as net buyers.
The week before last, foreign investors bought a net 164.72 billion yen of stocks.
Capital flows data released by the Ministry of Finance earlier on Thursday showed foreign investors bought a net 483.9 billion yen of Japanese shares last week. That followed net selling of 89 billion yen in the previous week.
The MOF figures cover a wider range of equity transactions, including those made outside the three exchanges.
Following is a breakdown of buying and selling for the three exchanges for Sept. 26-30 (in billions of yen and rounded):
Total foreign buying 5,137.97
Total foreign selling 4,647.42
Net buying 490.55
Previous week net buying 164.72
Total individual selling 4,507.24
Total individual buying 4,382.20
Net selling 125.04
Previous week net selling 91.92
Mutual funds net selling 48.48
Corporations net selling 15.87
Insurers net selling 1.72
Banks* net selling 39.51
Trust banks net selling 84.87
*Excluding trust banks ($1=114.12 Yen)
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