(Bloomberg) -- Foreign investors sold the most Japanese equities on record last week amid jitters going into major central bank decisions.
Overseas investors dumped a net ¥1.5 trillion ($10.5 billion) of the country’s stocks in the week to Sept. 13, the most in data back to 1993, according to figures compiled by the Japan Exchange. They bought a net ¥442.5 billion of equity futures.
“Many foreign investors were wary of a stronger yen ahead of the FOMC and BOJ monetary policy meetings,” said Masashi Akutsu, chief equity strategist at Bank of America Securities Co.
Read: Buybacks Comfort Investors as BOJ Reduces Presence
Meanwhile, individual investors bought net ¥219.4 billion, and companies purchased ¥307.3 billion, most likely as share buybacks. This may have provided support for the Japanese market last week, when the Topix index fell only 1%.
“Without share buybacks, the market could have collapsed even more,” said Shingo Ide, chief equity strategist at NLI Research Institute.
(Updates with comment and data points)
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