Foreign investors sell Japanese stocks for second week on yen intervention worries

Foreign investors sold Japanese equities for a second consecutive week through August 8, as expectations of further measures to support the yen weighed on appetite for Japanese stocks.

They were net sellers of Japanese stocks worth 368.5 billion yen ($2.31 billion) during the week, after net sales of about 392.5 billion yen the previous week, data from Japan's Ministry of Finance showed.

Last week, Japan's Finance Ministry said Tokyo and Washington had conducted coordinated yen-buying intervention and would not hesitate to take further action.

The yen touched a nearly three-month high of 155.21 per dollar last week after the intervention in currency markets. It was last trading at 159.43 per dollar.

A stronger yen increases the US dollar value of foreign investors' Japanese assets, but it also reduces their purchasing power in dollar terms for new stock purchases.

The Nikkei, however, rose 1.93% last week, tracking gains in U.S. technology stocks as AI-related shares found support.

Japanese long-term bonds saw a modest foreign outflow of 58.7 billion yen, following inflows of 558.9 billion yen the previous week. Japanese short-term bills attracted 215.9 billion yen in foreign inflows.

Elsewhere, Japanese investors bought a net 963.5 billion yen of foreign stocks, their largest weekly purchase since April 4.

They also purchased a net 1.63 trillion yen of foreign long-term bonds, the most since May 9, while selling about 781.4 billion yen of short-term bills.

($1 = 159.3800 yen)

Reporting by Gaurav Dogra; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips/Reuters