TOKYO, Apr 11: Japanese investors sold a net 1.145 trillion yen ($11.5 billion)worth of foreign bonds last week, the biggest selling in a year, as they cashed in gains at the start of Japan’s financial year.
They repatriated a total of 1.063 trillion yen in the week through April 6, according to data from the Ministry of Finance after deducting net buying in foreign equities and money market instruments.
Since the beginning of January, Japanese investors repatriated 5.38 trillion yen, double last year’s 2.59 trillion yen.
But analysts said Japanese investors were more likely to reinvest their money abroad to seek higher yield, rather than ploughing it into Japanese government bonds (JGBs), after the Bank of Japan last week unveiled sweeping monetary stimulus. Beause the BOJ is going to buy such a large amount of JGBs, there won’t be many JGBs left for investors, so they will have to increase buying in foreign bonds,’ said Minori Uchida, chief FX analyst at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
During the week through April 6, foreign investors bought a net 868.6 billion worth of Japanese equities. ($1 = 99.5050 Japanese yen)
(agencies)
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