Foreigners divested Japanese stock for the first time in 12 weeks in the week through June 21 on caution over the Israel-Iran conflict and its impact on Japanese oil imports and inflation.
They sold a net 524.3-billion-yen ($3.62 billion) worth of Japanese stocks, logging their first weekly net sales since March 29, data from Japan’s Ministry of Finance showed on Thursday.
Japan’s core inflation hit a more than two-year high in May, which left the Bank of Japan – already grappling with uncertainties over U.S. trade policies – under pressure to resume rate hikes.
Despite the outflows, Japanese stocks received net foreign inflows of about 6.81 trillion yen so far in this quarter, the biggest amount in two years.
Japanese long-term bonds also recorded a net 368.8-billion-yen worth of foreign outflows last week, following three straight weeks of buying.
However, Foreigners bought a robust 1.5-trillion-yen worth of short-term bills, the most in nine weeks.
Meanwhile, Japanese participants in overseas markets ditched 88.2-billion-yen worth of foreign stocks in a sixth successive week of net sales.
They bought about 615.5-billion-yen worth of long-term foreign bonds, adding to the previous week’s 1.57-trillion-yen worth of net bond buying.
($1 = 144.8500 yen)
