Foreigners Dump Most Japanese Stocks in Year Last Week Amid Rout

(Bloomberg) -- Foreign investors offloaded ¥824 billion ($5.78 billion) of cash Japanese equities last week, their biggest selling on a net basis in almost a year, data from Japan Exchange Group showed.

Their third weekly net selling in a row came as the Nikkei average lost 5.8% in the week hit by fresh concerns about the health of the global economy following soft US economic data.

Foreigners have been selling more Japanese stocks than they bought in six of the past eight weeks, as the yen’s rebound raised concerns about a hit to domestic companies’ earnings.

Despite heavy selling by foreign investors, Japanese individual investors took advantage of the market’s decline to buy on dips, with buying by Japanese retailers on a net basis reaching ¥467 billion, the biggest in five weeks.

The market hasn’t fallen below the Aug. 5 low and there are signs that the market may have bottomed out, said Seiichi Suzuki, chief equity market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Intelligence Laboratory. “It looks like we are in a phase of gradual recovery.”

Purchases exceeding selling by Japanese corporations were a hefty ¥354 billion, the third largest since 2016 as the companies stepped up share buybacks.