Overseas investors bought a net Yen 342.1 billion of Japanese equities in April, according to the latest issue of Inward Investment in Japanese Equity by Overseas Investors, published by the Ministry of Finance (MOF) in Tokyo yesterday.
Overseas investors have been steady net buyers of Japanese equities since July last year, and have now acquired a cumulative net total of Yen 1 trillion, helping to push up the Nikkei 225 index.
In terms of monthly trading volumes (i.e. the total amount of purchases and sales), overseas investors traded more than Yen 40 trillion in April, twice the average over the last twelve months.
The statistics show that overseas investors have been major driving forces in the trading activities of Japanese equities, says a spokesman for Mizuho Corporate Bank in Tokyo.